Would you ever eat salmon that’s gray? If you consume farm-raised salmon, you’ve likely been eating gray salmon that’s dyed pink.
Contents
Difference between wild-caught salmon and farm-raised salmon
Salmon is one of the healthiest foods you could eat—if it’s the right kind. There is a big difference between farm-raised salmon and wild-caught salmon.
To make farm-raised salmon pink, they use synthetic astaxanthin. Natural astaxanthin has profound health benefits, but there aren’t any credible studies that show the synthetic version is safe for human consumption.
However, there has been a lot of research on synthetic antioxidants and the potential increased risk of cancer. Because the version of astaxanthin used in farm-raised salmon is a synthetic antioxidant, you should be aware there are no safety studies on it.
Other synthetic dyed foods
Other foods, like egg yolks and chicken, can also be dyed to achieve a color that people will pay more for. This is just another reason why you should consume wild-caught salmon, pasture-raised organic eggs, and organic chicken.
Benefits of natural astaxanthin
- It’s 50 times stronger than synthetic astaxanthin in its ability to counter oxidation
- It’s 20 times stronger than synthetic astaxanthin in its ability to handle free radicals
- It has benefits for your eyes, brain, heart, and immune system
- It can provide UV protection
- It has anti-inflammatory properties
- It comes as a complex with at least five other carotenoids
Further reading
Public Choice at the Dawn of the Special Interest State: The Story of Butter and Margarine – https://www.jstor.org/stable/3480530?seq=1
The Rise of Synthetic Colors in the American Food Industry – https://www.academia.edu/30440637/The_Rise_of_Synthetic_Colors_in_the_American_Food_Industry_1870_1940?email_work_card=view-paper
On The Psychological Impact Of Food Colour – https://flavourjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13411-015-0031-3
Smithsonian Magazine – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-government-came-to-decide-color-your-food-180973962/
Time – https://time.com/4790794/farmed-salmon-pink/
I always wondered why Salmon was the only seafood that wasn’t grey or bland colored. Even shrimp are naturally grey before you cook em.
I think our younger generation would prefer to just have the food the way it comes and save a few cents on the dye and health risks.
I used to work at a seafood market whilst going to school. I remember customers frequently wanting the farm raised salmon over the wild and they would always site the color of the fish in their decision making. I would tell them that there was dye in the farm raised and the wild was perfectly fresh. Most customers wouldn’t believe me and would swear up and down to me that my stock of wild caught Salmon was bad… after a while I simply stopped mentioning this to the customers because it generally seemed to result in me looking like an untrustworthy employee
I recently learned that Doritos in the US contain artificial red coloring – whereas the same flavors here in Denmark are dyed with paprika ? I really don’t see why you would use artificial food dyes instead of natural ones.
As someone from the Caribbean, I can attest to the fact that orange oranges do not exist here. However, I have had the orange variant and I can say with certainty that ripe green oranges are sweeter.
I lived in North America for a few years and was genuinely shocked at how many people thought cheese was naturally orange.