Are you still eating farmed salmon?
Farmed salmon is big news at the moment. Everyone knows we should eat more oily fish as the omega-3 fatty acids it contains helps to prevent heart disease. A recent American study, however, has found that farmed salmon contains alarmingly high levels of cancer forming PCBs and dioxins. Farmed salmon from Scotland has been found to contain the highest levels of cancer-causing chemicals in the world. 99% of salmon on sale in British supermarkets today is farmed, and most of it comes from Scotland.
“Given the cocktail of chemicals, artificial colourings and contaminants, Scottish farmed salmon should surely carry a Government health warning.”*
PCB’s are highly dangerous chemicals that result from industrial pollution between the 1920s and the 1970s. They do not break down easily and due to this persistence they continue to contaminate the world’s food supply. PCBs concentrate in oils and fat but their levels are much higher in farmed salmon because of the high level of fish oil contained in the industrial fish-meal which is used to feed the fish. PCBs build up in salmon at up to 30 times the level in their feed. Farmed salmon is ten times more contaminated and contains 52% more body fat than wild salmon but it also contains 35% less of the healthy omega-3 fatty acid.
The American guidelines recommend eating farmed salmon no more than once every four months. To reduce your exposure to PCBs, trim off visible fat before cooking. Grilling or baking rather than frying will help also to lower the fat content.
There is an alternative.
Wild salmon, especially that caught in the less polluted Pacific Ocean,
is safe and healthy to eat. Wild salmon can be expensive and difficult to
find, but many people don’t realise that the cheaper tinned salmon
is usually from wild stocks.
Organic salmon is paler than the conventionally farmed variety as no synthetic dye is permitted in their feed. The chemical canthaxanthin is used in nearly all conventionally farmed salmon to dye the flesh pink. No growth hormones or GMOs are permitted in organic salmon and the routine use of antibiotics is not allowed. Stocking densities are half that of conventional farms. Organic standards impose strict controls on feeding and any fish-meal must be made with the trimmings of fish caught for human consumption, not industrial fish-meal.
“Kinvara” organic salmon are reared near Clare Island, four miles off the west coast of Ireland, in the cleanest, Grade “A” waters of the Atlantic Ocean. This is the most exposed site in Western Europe; the conditions make it impossible for parasites to survive, so there is no need for chemicals to treat infestation. The fish are fed from Herring and Mackerel caught within 30 miles of the farm.
As Nature Intended only sells wild or organic Irish salmon.
Wild salmon
Pacific wild salmon fillets (frozen) approx 200g sold singly £1.99
each.
(caught off the west coast of Canada)
Scottish wild smoked salmon (100g) - £6.29
Scottish wild smoked salmon (200g) - £11.29
Organic salmon
Irish organic salmon (fresh) various weights (per 100g) - £2.12
Kinvara Irish roast smoked salmon (100g) - £3.99
Kinvara Irish Gravad Lax (100g) - £3.99
Kinvara Irish smoked salmon (100g) - £3.99
(caught off Clare Island)
Summer Isle smoked salmon (100g) - £3.99
Summer Isle smoked salmon (200g) - £6.49
Summer Isle smoked salmon trimmings(100g) - £3.99
Summer Isle Gravad Lax (100g) - £3.99
Summer Isle honey roast smoked salmon (per 100g) - £2.49
(Summer Isle salmon is smoked in Scotland but the fish is caught off Clare
Island on the west coast of Ireland)
Wild tinned salmon
Princes Pink wild salmon (213g) - 95p
Princes Red wild salmon (213g) - £1.99
Interesting websites
http://www.ewg.org/reports/farmedPCBs/
http://www.naturalworldtours.co.uk
http://www.soilassociation.org
http:// www.kinvarasmokedsalmon.com
http://www.guardian.co.uk/the
issues/article/0,6512,1119784,00.html
*Don Staniford, MD of the Salmon Farm Protest Group.
