Do you eat FARMED salmon??

[toystory1130]

My mom is very much against eating it but from what I've read farmed salmon itsn't as bad as people make it out to be (see below). I eat it at least 2 times a week and hope I'm getting more benefits than harm. Your thoughts??

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/salmon_and_beef_whats_safe_to_eat

 

[minnie mum]

We eat it weekly. I have no concerns about it. If I heeded every food scare that hit the news I'd be existing on a diet of steamed kale and organic, free range water.

 

[bcla]

I prefer wild salmon if I can get it. It does tend to cost more and I believe has better flavor generally. Wild tends to come from areas with less mercury, while the pens for farmed salmon tend to be closer to populated areas with more industrial pollutants (especially mercury). I don't worry about pollutants per se. I don't think it's that big a deal.

Most wild salmon has a deeper color than farmed. Wild can vary from a deep orange to a deep red depending on the origin. Farmed salmon would look almost white without carotenoids added to their feed. Even then, it looks kind of pale to medium orange.

 

[LJSquishy]

No way. Farmed salmon has colorant added to make it look red like wild salmon naturally is, and I'm pretty sure farmed salmon (and other fish) eat GMO feed.

Wild salmon isn't that expensive, it's about $10/lb right now for Sockeye fillets. The taste is so much better, too!

 

[bcla]

No way. Farmed salmon has colorant added to make it look red like wild salmon naturally is, and I'm pretty sure farmed salmon (and other fish) eat GMO feed.

Wild salmon isn't that expensive, it's about $10/lb right now for Sockeye fillets. The taste is so much better, too!

I've never seen farmed salmon that looked red. More a medium orange or even really pale if a minimum of colorant was used. I don't worry too much about feed either.

I prefer wild for its taste. However, I don't worry too much about consuming farmed salmon.

 

[Kogo Shuko]

I once read a book about whales, and the biologist who wrote it spent a good portion of her book (at least 2-3 chapters) discussing how fish are farmed, how the fish are not as healthy, how the farming effects the region (both physically and economically), and how the farmed fish do tend to escape their pens and attack and breed with local salmon. She had so many reasons listed, all scientific and logical... I just can't bring myself to eat farmed salmon after reading that book.

I think the biggest thing that hit home was all of the mercury pollution that salmon farms emit into the wild. The pollution simply isn't contained and it's endangering more than just the people who eat the farmed fish.

 

[scrapquitler]

My mom is very much against eating it but from what I've read farmed salmon itsn't as bad as people make it out to be (see below). I eat it at least 2 times a week and hope I'm getting more benefits than harm. Your thoughts??

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/salmon_and_beef_whats_safe_to_eat

I rarely buy any farmed seafood. I would rather pay more for wild caught in general.

And NEVER ever ever ever Tilapia.

 

[Lavaluma]

We don't eat farmed salmon. We eat fish every 1-2 weeks and only buy wild caught fish. Typically, I choose what type we are eating by what looks the best that day. Farmed fish never looks good when it is sitting next to the wild caught fish. When I choose a more expensive fish, I just buy less fish and make more sides. For example, if I buy cod or flounder, I buy 1.25 pounds and if I buy Salmon, I buy .75 pounds.

No way. Farmed salmon has colorant added to make it look red like wild salmon naturally is, and I'm pretty sure farmed salmon (and other fish) eat GMO feed.

Wild salmon isn't that expensive, it's about $10/lb right now for Sockeye fillets. The taste is so much better, too!

I wish I could get Salmon that cheap. Here it runs $20-30/lb depending on the type.

 

[minnie mum]

I prefer wild Pacific salmon when I can get it, but I don't mind Atlantic if that's all I can find. I wonder how many people realize that there is usually a significant difference in the appearance and taste between the two. For that matter, even with Pacific salmon there are several different species (coho, sockeye, Chinook, etc) each with its own characteristics. Both are farmed, but the Atlantic is more commonly farmed, even on the west coast. Fish farms do have challenges, but since the wild salmon fishery is in danger of dwindling stocks and overfishing, at least they are attempting a sustainable supply.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Yes, I do. My choices are pretty limited here in mid-Missouri.

As far as the colorant in the fish food, I hate that they add it but if I want cheap salmon, I am up a creek.

 

[NewRVLady]

we wild catch most of the fish we eat...bass, crappie and Trout
I do buy smoked and cooked salmon and eat it at Chinese Buffets-never really thought how it was raised an issue

 

[Christine]

I eat farmed salmon but I do realize it doesn't have the same levels of omega fats as wild. As to the "coloring" it is synthetic astaxanthin, which is sold as a supplement to humans and is used for farmed salmon.

http://www.cleanfish.com/blog/what-does-“color-added”-really-mean-in-farmed-salmon

Because of its strong antioxidant properties, astaxanthin is commonly used as a nutritional supplement for humans. The irony is that astaxanthin capsules are sold at many of the same stores that frown upon farmed salmon specifically because of its color-added stipulation! At a recent visit to a San Francisco high-end food store, the fishmonger told me he only sells wild salmon because no one was buying the color-added farmed salmon. Additionally, he didn’t even know how color was actually added to the salmon. However, at the same store, multiple varieties of astaxanthin supplements were being sold. For humans, astaxanthin provides potent anti-inflammatory benefits and is crucial for people with cardiovascular diseases, cancer and arthritis. Astaxanthin has even been proven to prevent the formation of cataracts. In fact, on a recent Dr. Oz episode, astaxanthin was touted as “The Number 1 supplement you’ve never heard of that you should be taking.”

Since farmed salmon are not fed steady diets of krill and shrimp, synthetic astaxanthin is added to their feed. Synthetic astaxanthin was created in the 1950s as a substitute for harvesting vast amounts of wild krill. At the time, the inventors applied for FDA approval as a color additive instead of a nutritional supplement which today has created the controversial “color-added” topic, although farmed salmon need astaxanthin to be healthy. This issue has been the go-to complaint for opponents of farmed salmon, although the “dyes” that opponents refer to are the same substances found in wild salmon.

 

[skylizard]

We try to avoid farmed fish in general. Around here the farmed fish is usually around the same price as the wild caught so I don't see the point of buying farmed.

 

[JanaDee]

We don't eat salmon. Any fish we eat is wild-caught freshwater fish (trout, bluegills, pike, walleye, etc).

 

[JoeA]

No. Never. Prefer wild caught

 

[pickles521]

<snip>

And NEVER ever ever ever Tilapia.

Can you please explain this a bit? I've heard that farmed tilapia is terrible -the new food scourge - but when I try to research it I find mixed messages. Particularly the "tilapia is worse than bacon" claim is hard to validate. I've seen that the original study was misquoted and it's more that tilapia shouldn't be the ONLY fish you eat. I'm leaning toward avoiding it, but I'd really like better resources to support that action.

 

[minkydog]

I rarely buy any farmed seafood. I would rather pay more for wild caught in general.

And NEVER ever ever ever Tilapia.

I'm not a fan of salmon at all. It's just too fishy-tasting to me. And I really, really don't like tilapia--no matter how you cook it, it comes off like muddy fish-flavored gelatin. It makes me mad when go to a restaurant, and the only fish choices are salmon and tilapia cooked various ways.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Can you please explain this a bit? I've heard that farmed tilapia is terrible -the new food scourge - but when I try to research it I find mixed messages. Particularly the "tilapia is worse than bacon" claim is hard to validate. I've seen that the original study was misquoted and it's more that tilapia shouldn't be the ONLY fish you eat. I'm leaning toward avoiding it, but I'd really like better resources to support that action.

Taste like it is my reason. No matter how I cook it, I hate the taste.

I have "heard" that tilapia is used to clean "tanks" from other fish. Don't know if that is fact or fiction.

While this is not a reason to not eat it or eat it, the prison system has forced out private tilapia famers due to the fact that they are producing it at lower cost compared with private businesses.

 

[maxiesmom]

No I don't eat farmed salmon. Not only is it bad for you, but it tastes no where near as good as the wild caught stuff.

 

[soccerdad72]

Never been a big salmon fan in general, so I've never stopped to look where the salmon comes from.