Unraveling food industry lies - Your salmon and meat are artificially dyed to look more appealing
There is a reason why those radiant, pink salmon filets and juicy,
golden chicken breasts in the meat case at the grocery store typically
appear unusually appetizing -- but it often has nothing to do with the
natural colorings of these animals' flesh. It might come as a surprise
to many readers, but conventional salmon, chicken, and various other
meats are often artificially dyed to give the illusion that they are
healthier and more nutritious than they really are.
Ironically I post this the day after eating a meal with salmon last night...and after eating it, I decided to remove fish and shrimp from my diet as well (removing the last of the animal products I currently consume). I want to avoid additives as much as possible, and fish is next on my list to remove. Look out for tomorrow's blog on animal proteins.
It turns out that 95 percent of the Atlantic salmon sold in stores is farm-raised, and that the vast majority of this farmed salmon is artificially dyed to look more similar to wild salmon. Pharmaceutical giant Hoffman-La Roche is a major producers of pink dyes specifically used in farmed salmon pellets, also known as processed salmon food, which obviously turns salmon flesh more pink.
But instead of being composed of the natural salmon antioxidant astaxanthin (http://www.naturalnews.com/Files/Astaxanthin.pdf), the deceptive pink color found in farmed salmon is nothing more than a synthetic color chemical known as "Carophyll" that is designed to look like astaxanthin and other natural salmon colorings. Hoffman-La Roche and others actually have a salmon color chart known as "SalmoFan" that allows salmon farmers to pick the shade of pink they want added to their salmon food, much in the same way that one would pick a wall paint color using color tiles at the hardware store. (http://www.puresalmon.org/human_health.html)
For those with a trained eye, it is fairly obvious that farmed salmon is not the same as wild salmon, as the former is typically a duller pink color and lacks the vibrant rose color that is characteristic of wild salmon. But if it were not for the artificial color additives chosen from the SalmoFan, farmed salmon would likely not even be pink at all, but rather a disgusting gray color that nobody would dare purchase.
Farmed salmon, after all, are subjected to unnatural, cramped environments in which they are not allowed access to the open sea. Such environments create excess waste, and subject salmon to high amounts of toxic chemicals. Farmed salmon also contains far lower levels of omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients compared to wild salmon.
Conventional chicken often dyed yellow, gold
Just like consumers would refuse to buy gray salmon meat, they also would never touch gray chicken meat. So to make inferior, factory-farmed chicken look like high-quality, pasture-raised chicken, many large-scale chicken producers add various dyes and additives to chicken feed to make their meat appear more yellow and golden.It is hardly surprising that highly-processed foods like cookies, crackers, snack mixes, cereals and chips contain numerous additives, colorings, and other chemicals. But most people do not expect that the meats they purchase have undergone the same chemical alterations, as it is generally assumed that meat is meat, and that it is all the same.
This is why it is important that you know where your meat comes from, and whether or not the animal feed used to produce it contained artificial additives or coloring chemicals. When buying fish, stick with wild varieties rather than farmed, and select organic, grass-fed, pastured meats of other varieties whenever possible.
To learn more about food secrets, be sure to check out the FREE NaturalNews report, 25 Amazing (and Weird) Facts About Food: http://www.naturalnews.com
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| Q |
How Can You Tell If Salmon Is Really Wild?
I read that The New York Times has reported that farmed
salmon is being passed off as wild salmon, even in some pretty fancy
stores at very fancy prices. How can I tell whether the salmon I'm
buying is wild or farmed?
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| A |
Answer (Published 9/13/2005)
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The New York Times story (published on April 10, 2005) certainly is a cautionary tale. For those of you who didn't see it, the Times sent a reporter to buy wild salmon at eight stores in the city. Some of the fish sold for as much as $29 per pound. The Times then had the salmon tested and learned that six of the eight pieces of fish purchased were farmed, not wild. It appears that the suspicions of the food writer at the Times were raised by the fact that so much wild salmon was on the market during the off-season (from November to March) when the fish is not widely caught. Wild salmon is almost extinct on the East Coast and, the Times reported, West Coast wild catches are restricted by quotas. As a result, 90 percent of the salmon sold in the United States is farmed. Unfortunately, farmed salmon has been found to contain residues of PCBs and other toxic contaminants, as well as residues of antibiotics and other drugs. The tests performed on the salmon purchased by the Times measured the amount of food coloring added to farmed fish. (Without this, the flesh of farmed salmon would be white.) You can't tell at a glance whether fish is wild or farmed - they look alike although they taste different. And consumers certainly can't be expected to have fish tested to find out whether or not it is farmed or wild. You're better off assuming that salmon sold as wild during the period from November to March really is farmed. I recommend eating wild Alaskan salmon because it is delicious and a good source of health-protective omega-3 fatty acids. However, you can get the same fatty acids from other cold water fish including mackerel, sardines, herring, and black cod. If you want wild salmon, you can order it online from one of my favorite sources, Vital Choice Seafood (www.vitalchoice.com). The wild Alaskan salmon available from this source is flash-frozen when caught. If wild Alaskan salmon is too pricey for your food budget, you can buy canned sockeye (red) salmon in the supermarket; it's all wild. It will give you the same omega-3 fatty acids found in fresh or frozen Alaskan wild salmon. Otherwise, all you can do is buy from trusted sources and ask them how they make sure their fish is really wild. Andrew Weil, M.D. | |
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From Pure Salmon Campaign
Farmed Salmon and Human Health
In 1999, the World Health Organization raised food safety concerns over fish farming, including salmon,1 warning that this growing practice posed risks to public health. Artificial coloring, toxic by-products, and cancer causing contaminants have all been found in factory farmed salmon. The United States currently imports approximately 200,000 tons of farmed salmon annually,2 but very little of it is ever tested for diseases or chemical contaminants. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considered testing farmed salmon for antibiotics, pesticides, or possible carcinogens—all of which are used by many overseas salmon farms—those plans are on hold.3
Artificial Color
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Farmers
use a "SalmoFan" chart to choose the color for their salmon. Colorants,
added to the food, can account for up to one-third of total feed costs.
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In 2003, the European Commission ordered salmon farmers to sharply reduce the use of Canthaxanthin,5 and most countries, including the U.S., require labels to identify farmed and dyed salmon as such. Yet, fish are occasionally sold without labels: Safeway, Kroger, and Albertsons were sued in 2003 for failing to identify artificially colored, factory raised salmon.6
Harmful Chemicals
Industrial salmon operations use a number of other chemicals to raise marketable fish. All of these pose known and potential risks to human health. These substances include oxytetracycline, an antibiotic that may lead to antibiotic resistance.7 Similar to the controversial use of antibiotics by the poultry and livestock industries, factory salmon farms must prevent fish from infecting one another with diseases. Because of the high prevalence of drugs on salmon farms, unwary consumers may ingest untold amounts of antibiotics.“Malachite green,” a fungicide, was banned internationally in the 1990s, but still illegally used in some salmon hatcheries and for juvenile fish. Scientists have found that exposure to malachite green may raise the risk of cancer, cause genetic mutations, and harm the human reproductive system.8
Contaminants like dieldrin, dioxins, toxaphene, and PCBs are often found in food and nutritional supplements manufactured for aquaculture. Because of this, farmed salmon have higher concentrations of toxics than wild salmon.9 Although the U.S. EPA recommends eating salmon no more than once or twice a week, a 2004 study by independent researchers found much higher levels of toxic contaminants in farmed salmon than previously thought. These scientists recommended as little as one serving of salmon per month.10
Lower Nutritional Value in Farmed Salmon vs Wild
A close reading of supermarket labels shows that some wild salmon, high in “heart-healthy,” Omega-3 fatty acids, contain less than 1 percent fat. In contrast, factory farmed fish can be as high as 27 percent fat and contain 15 percent less protein. Despite efforts by governments and international agencies to limit antibiotics, harmful chemicals, and toxic substances in farmed salmon, the danger persists. Millions of fish—raised in close confinement, eating an unvaried artificial diet, and constantly exposed to their own wastes—mean inevitable exposure to harmful chemicals.