Emily Brennan
How do salmon who never leave their underwater cages get the same pink flesh as their wild counterparts?
Wild salmon meat is naturally pink as a result of their diet, so how do fish farmers make the meat of farmed salmon the same colour?
The distinctive colour we associate with salmon develops naturally in the wild from a diet rich in carotenoid-containing crustaceans and krill in their natural habitats. When farmed salmon are intensively reared in aquaculture environments and fed a diet that doesn’t contain these naturally-occurring pigments, what happens as a result? That iconic colour that is so recognisable is replaced with off-white, slightly greyish meat instead.
Wild salmon is no longer fished commercially anywhere in the UK. Since 2002 it has been illegal to sell any Atlantic salmon caught by rod and line under Scottish law and in 2018 that legislation was extended to England, where it is now illegal to sell any wild salmon caught in England. But the Scottish salmon farming industry is big business: it is valued at approximately £1.8bn annually, and is expected to more than double its production by 2030, against 2020 figures. With such high stakes, getting the colouring of salmon meat just right to appeal to consumers is essential, not just in Scotland but on salmon farms all over the world.
Additives are used to give the greyish meat of farmed salmon a pink colour
Consumers trust what they know, and for many that is the distinctive colour of salmon fillets on supermarket shelves and fish counters. In order to make the meat of farmed salmon more appealing to the consumer’s eye, additives are included in the diet of farmed salmon with the specific intention to make it more closely resemble that of its wild counterpart. Meeting consumer expectation is vital to the success of the farmed salmon industry, and as one Canadian salmon farmer put it plainly in his 2017 interview with TIME, “If we didn’t do it, customers wouldn’t buy it”.
One chemical used previously by the salmon industry to achieve this desirable hue was canthaxanthin. That was, until the use of this particular compound was drastically reduced in an EU-wide directive over fears of the long-term effect it could have on the eyesight of consumers. In a 2002 press release David Byrne, the EU food safety commissioner, explained "scientific assessments have shown that a high intake of canthaxanthins produces an accumulation of pigments in the retina, affecting the sight. The use of this feed additive is purely cosmetic, to colour food and reduced levels of the additive will not adversely affect taste or quality". In the same press release, it was announced that the Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition (SCAN) concluded that the limits were set too high and cut them by over 65%.
What additive is used to alter the colour of farmed salmon meat now?
Fear not, rather than hold up their hands and admit the truth to consumers and accept that it was time to come clean, the farmed salmon industry moved onto another option: astaxanthin. Safer for consumers, this carotenoid is a manufactured copy of the pigment that wild salmon consume naturally as part of their diet in the wild. It is systematically added to the diet of farmed salmon in varying quantities to produce the distinctive colour that consumers recognise.
Research from a group of Norwegian academics in 2004 demonstrated that, when offered the choice, consumers associate quality with colour and would be willing to pay more for richer shades of pink. The same study also concluded that without artificial colouring, farm raised salmon would be difficult to market and would probably command significantly lower prices.
Salmon farmers choose the colour of their salmon
Consumers in different countries have different preferences about the “best” colour for their salmon, and the industry has developed a way to standardise the colour palette to help farmers get just the right hue for their farmed salmon in order to appeal to their target markets. Like choosing a paint colour at your local DIY shop, the SalmoFan™ colour measurement tool enables standardisation of colouring across the industry. Salmon farmers can choose from a range of carotenoid additives that promise to deliver precisely-coloured and pigmented food reliably and consistently to match hues of this colour wheel.
The topic was even recently put on show at the Tate Britain by artistic duo Cooking Sections in their exhibition Salmon: A Red Herring exploring the deceptive reality of salmon as a colour and as a fish. Prompted by this project, farmed salmon has since been permanently removed from food outlets at all Tate sites and replaced with ingredients that promote regenerative aquacultures instead.
There is no obligation to state on labelling that these additives have been used in farmed fish meat, as they are systematically fed to salmon as part of their diet in aquaculture environments just like routine antibiotic treatments, rather than added to the final product before sale like preservatives, flavourings, and so on.
This is just one of many unnatural intensive farming practices that takes place away from public view. It begs the question: what else is happening behind closed doors?
Factory farms for salmon
Undercover investigations at Scottish salmon farms have exposed salmon suffering from infections and sea lice infestations. Thousands of fish die every year in pain from their injuries. Furthermore, although it’s a legal requirement in the UK for animals, including fish, to “be spared any avoidable pain, distress or suffering during their killing and related operations”, farmed fish are not protected by detailed legislation about how exactly they should be slaughtered to spare avoidable suffering. Because of this, investigations at fish farms have revealed salmon having their gills cut while fully conscious, and being repeatedly clubbed to death.
Factory farms for fish are just as intensive and miserable as those for land animals. Results from a YouGov poll of the British public conducted by The Humane League UK found that 71% of those questioned agreed that fish should have the same legal protections as other farmed animals. Yet because their suffering happens beneath the surface, usually in remote areas of the UK coastline where they are hidden away from public view, the suffering of these sensitive and intelligent creatures often gets forgotten.
What can I do to help fish?
Fish are sensitive, sentient creatures and millions are suffering every day in an industry that is prioritising growth and revenue over the welfare of fish and the environment.
Join us in our fight against the abuse of fish by signing our petition calling on the Government to give fish the same legal protection at slaughter as other farmed animals.
