News Coverage
Is it safe to eat the salmon?
Published October 21, 2003
For years, we've loved cooking and eating salmon. It's easy to prepare, it's affordable and it contains those wonderfully healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
But now we're being bombarded with news that the plentiful salmon sold in grocery stores and served in many restaurants isn't good for us.
Should we worry about eating farm-raised salmon?
The answer depends on where you're getting your information.
On the one hand, watchdog groups claim that because farm-raised salmon are fed contaminated food and are genetically engineered, they're dangerous to eat. The questions don't end with salmon, either; similar safety concerns have been raised about farmed catfish and halibut.
On the other hand, the federal government and the leading aquaculture industry association insist that these farm-raised fish won't hurt us.
Making the case for eating only wild salmon is the Environmental Working Group, a not-for-profit environmental research organization based in Washington, D.C. It reports hat seven of 10 farmed salmon bought at grocery stores on both coasts were found to be contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).
The EWG cites studies suggesting that farmed salmon get PCBs from the contaminated fishmeal they're fed. Although the Environmental Protection Agency updated its PCB standards in 1999, the EWG says the Food and Drug Administration "has not updated its PCB health limit for commercial seafood since it was originally issued in 1984."
The Coastal Alliance for Aquaculture Reform, which runs the Web site www. farmedanddangerous.org , says that "people who eat between one and three servings of farmed salmon per week are exposed to an amount of contaminants which exceeds the safety level set by the World Health Organization." The alliance underlines its case against fish farming with a report that wild coho, sockeye, steelhead, pink and chum salmon contain more of the healthy fats than do farmed Atlantic salmon.
Muddying the waters even more, www.farmedanddangerous.org says some open-net cage fish farms are producing raw sewage in the coastal waters of British Columbia, making even wild fish unsafe to eat.
The Center for Food Safety in Washington, D.C., is sorting through the mess, analyzing research on PCBs as well as food colorings and antibiotics used in salmon farming.
"We're trying to formulate an answer right now," says Center for Food Safety spokeswoman Tracie Letterman.
Letterman won't go so far as to say that wild salmon is the way consumers should go. She notes that, because salmon from Chile, parts of Canada, Maine and the Pacific Northwest is endangered, farmed salmon is all consumers can get from those regions.
And on the other side of the fence lies the opinion that we're getting worked up unnecessarily.
"There's a lot of misinformation out there about farmed salmon," says Dan Herman, spokesman for the National Fisheries Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit trade association. "Both farmed and wild salmon are excellent products," says Herman, whose group represents fishing and fish farming companies, as well as restaurant chains and grocery stores.
The Food and Drug Administration's position is that farm-raised salmon won't hurt us.
"There really isn't a safety concern," says FDA spokeswoman Karen Tracey.
"We do monitor farm-raised salmon for PCB levels, and it has been far below the restricted level."
The FDA does, however, advise that pregnant women limit their salmon consumption to less than 12 ounces per week due to methylmercury levels found in that fish, Tracey notes. (The FDA tells pregnant women not to eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel or tilefish due to dangerous methylmercury levels.)
If you decide the safety concerns are serious enough to consider taking farmed salmon off your shopping list, you'll probably be going without salmon more than half the year. Wild salmon from Alaska can be had in some restaurants and grocery stores, but only in season -- through summer and early fall.
You'll pay for the privilege of eating the wild-caught salmon, too -- as much as $10 a pound more than the farm-raised. Depending on the store, you can pay as little as $5 a pound for the farm-raised, while you won't likely find the wild fish for less than $14 to $17 a pound.
Though the season is nearing its end, wild Alaskan salmon still can be found in Arlington at Whole Foods, which is selling coho, and Central Market in Fort Worth, which has king salmon.
Whole Foods addresses the PCB concerns by buying its farm-raised seafood only from farms certified by the Marine Stewardship Council, a nonprofit organization that requires environment-friendly fishing practices. The literature Whole Foods distributes in its stores states that its farm-raised trout, tilapia, shellfish and salmon are "raised on wholesome, natural feed that is free of animal by-products."
The Environmental Working Group offers a couple of cooking tips it says can help you reduce exposure to PCBs. PCBs are concentrated in the fish's fat, the Environmental Working Group says, so trim any fat from fish before cooking. The organization also advises that you broil, bake or grill your fish instead of frying, to allow the PCB-bearing fat to drain off.