Colour in farmed salmon

FARM RAISED SALMON

Air Date: November 14, 2001
Reporter: Erica Johnson
Producer: George Prodanou

The Colour Salmon

There's a major difference between wild salmon and farm-raised fresh salmon: without certain additives, the flesh of the farm-raised salmon would not have that familiar colour to it. Farm-raised flesh would be grey.

The naturally occurring colour of the flesh of wild salmon comes from carotenoids, such as astaxanthin. In nature, these carotenoids are produced by certain micro-organisms and plant life. Wild salmon obtain carotenoids from their diet of small shrimp and small fish. A specific carotenoid , asataxanthin, is found in 90 per cent of salmon in the wild.

But farm-raised salmon are fed pellets of ground up fish meal and oils to make them grow quickly.

They're given antibiotics to fight disease. No naturally occurring
carotenoids. No pink colour. So to achieve the desired color,
the feed of farmed salmon is supplemented with an additive.
You — as a salmon farmer — can choose the colour you want
your fish to be, and the feed will be adjusted to help you achieve

that colour.

There's no suggestion that this additive is harmful to people.
But it does make salmon change colour.

Salmon farmers can choose the colour they
want for their salmon, using the SalmoFan

The farmed salmon industry says its research shows that color, freshness and quality are integrally related. In the research, deeply colored flesh was associated with higher quality, better tasting salmon. The industry says the research suggests that people may be willing to pay a higher price for a salmon of the right colour.