Something is fishy in the state of Oregon.

The other day, I went to Safeway to buy salmon. Before I picked up the “Atlantic Salmon Fillet,” I noticed two words, in very small type: COLOR ADDED. Hmm. Then I saw a special deal on the “Salmon King/Chinook.” No warning label. But at the counter was a disclaimer on the special. It read: “FARM RAISED-COLOR ADDED.”
I asked a butcher about the color. He didn’t know they added color to farmed salmon until recently, when he saw a TV special on it. “They were spraying this stuff with a hose,” he said. “It was a vitamin supplement.” I asked if it was natural. He thought it was, but seemed unsure. He was nice and helpful, so I did not grill him anymore. But I decided to find out how my salmon got its color.
Even in the Northwest, most of the salmon at our supermarkets is Atlantic salmon. All of the Atlantic salmon is farm raised, often in British Columbia. Wild Pacific salmon get their orange-pink color from eating krill and other crustaceans. Farmed salmon don’t eat krill. They eat pellets containing canthaxanthin or astaxanthin, synthetic additives that give them the “right” color.
Canthaxanthin? Astaxanthin? Sounds like biological weapons. In a way, they are. Found in plants and algae, a lab-made version is used in fish feed. Natural color is important to many people. Without the additive, farmed salmon flesh is dull gray. I might not buy gray. And, fish factories fear, neither would millions of health-conscious consumers.
Fish farms claim the additives are essential for healthy fish. But the European Union’s Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition disagrees: “Canthaxanthin is a cartenoid pigment used as feed additive for the sole purpose of colouring food.”
The Food and Drug Administration sets an allowable daily intake of these additives. Canthaxanthins cause a buildup of pigments in the retina, which could damage eyesight. In January, health concerns prompted the European Union to cut the color additives allowed in fish feed to less than one-third of former levels. We still follow the old levels.
Since 1995, the FDA has required supermarkets to label individually packaged salmon that had synthetic colorants. But the food safety division of Oregon’s Department of Agriculture was unaware of this requirement, The Oregonian reported on Thursday. And — if we give them the benefit of the doubt — so were most supermarkets. Now, someone’s making the supermarkets take notice. Class-action lawsuits were filed against Kroger, Safeway and Albertson’s last week.
Color isn’t the only concern. The pellets are made of wild fish taken from countries like Chile. Canada doesn’t allow its own fish to be ground into meal. It’s stealing, but worse. Stanford University researchers calculate 2.4 pounds of wild fish are needed to produce one pound of salmon. Fish factories are wasting nature’s bounty.
Fish farms pollute. Anyone who has had a pair of goldfish knows they poop a great deal, and they leave a lot of uneaten pellets. What about 1 million tons of farmed salmon worldwide, as The Seattle Times reports? That’s a lot of raw untreated sewage.
Farmed fish are polluted. Last year, the peer-reviewed scientific journal Chemosphere discovered that farmed salmon contained 10 times as many PCBs as wild salmon. Farmed fish also get lice. Sea lice spread quickly in crowded fishpens, and escape to infect wild salmon. Many farmed salmon also escape, compete with Pacific salmon for food and take over their habitat. Finally, these farms devastate fishing communities and families that harvest salmon for a living.
Eating salmon seems like a dubious prospect. But here are three simple rules for consumers to follow. First, use reputable sources to find healthy, sustainable seafood. For example, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Web site lists certain seafood to avoid. Farmed salmon is one. Second, unless the package or menu says “WILD,” it is farm-raised and artificially colored. Third, spread the word. Eat wild. Don’t fall for the dye job.