A staple food in many diets, perhaps most notably the recently popular Paleo diet, salmon is a good source of protein, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B12. Known for its distinctive pink colour and mild flavor that pairs well with dill, garlic, and other herbs. Wild salmon actually ranges in colour depending on location, with Alaskan sockeye salmon being the pinkest due to its diet rich in krill.
Farm-Raised Salmon Use Fake Coloring
Salmon get their colour from their food, farm-raised salmon, which live in pens and are fed a diet made up of various ingredients such as the oil and flesh of smaller fish (e.g. herring and anchovies), corn gluten, ground-up feathers, soybeans, chicken fat, genetically engineered yeast and pink-ifying pellets.
That’s right, pink-ifying pellets.
Is anyone even surprised at this point? Since farm-raised salmons eat a diet that would make their flesh grey, farmers resort to using these pellets to make sure their salmons’ flesh is more appealing to the eye in order to boost sales.
But Is It Healthier? No, Not Really.
The main ingredient in these pink pellets is astaxanthin. While astaxanthin is good for us, some manufacturers synthesize the compound in a lab, using petrochemicals instead of relying on natural algae or pulverized crustaceans.
Wild Is Better For You and The Environment
Wild salmon, which is vastly more nutritious than farmed salmon, is significantly more expensive – sometimes two or three times more expensive than farmed salmon.
What does that extra money buy?
In addition to more nutritional value and a natural hue, wild salmon are more environmentally sustainable than farmed salmon.
Waste from salmon farms can include disease and parasites which affect wild populations of salmon as well as their farmed counterparts, and have a negative impact on local wild salmon ecosystems.
In addition, while wild salmon and farmed salmon can both contain contaminants, wild salmon has significantly lower levels of contaminants and is considered safer to consume in large quantities than farmed salmon.
sources:
- https://www.umb.no/statisk/ior/ferdig.pdf
- https://qz.com/358811/heres-why-your-farmed-salmon-has-color-added-to-it/
- https://www.dsm.com/markets/anh/en_US/products/products-solutions/products_solutions_tools/Products_solutions_tools_salmon.html
- https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2014/03/fish-faceoff-wild-salmon-vs-farmed-salmon/
- https://www.iatp.org/files/Marine_Aquaculture_in_the_United_States_Enviro.htm
- https://bc.ctvnews.ca/farmed-vs-wild-salmon-which-is-better-1.485140
- https://www.adn.com/article/study-alaska-natives-confirms-salmon-rich-diet-prevents-diabetes-heart- disease
- https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/finfish-and-shellfish-products/4259/2