Salmon Safety

Morning News Beat, Kevin Coupe
Published August 7, 2003

As a follow-up to last week's MNB piece about salmon being discovered with potentially dangerous doses of cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the Environmental Working Group (EWG) - which originally discovered the problem - says that there are some precautions that consumers should be taking:

• When possible, choose wild salmon over farmed salmon.
• Eat an 8 oz. portion of farmed salmon no more than once a month.
• Trim fat from farm-raised salmon before cooking.
• Cook farm-raised salmon in ways that let the fat run off. Grill, broil, or bake. Don't fry or sauté.

However, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is sticking by its original recommendations, telling WebMD that "Salmon is a healthy food and should be part of a healthy diet. We recommend salmon consumption not be altered."