Farmed Salmon Gets Its Pink From a Supplement
Wild salmon earns its color. Farmed salmon is fed it.
That rich orange-pink in salmon looks like a sign of freshness and health. In farmed salmon, it's a formulation choice.
Gray fish, colored on purpose
Wild salmon turns pink from eating krill and other creatures rich in a pigment called astaxanthin. Farmed salmon eats pellets, so its flesh would be a pale gray — until producers add astaxanthin to the feed. There's literally a color fan (the "SalmoFan") used to pick the target shade.
Not dangerous, just not what it seems
The pigment itself isn't harmful. The point is that the color you read as "wild and healthy" is a dialed-in setting, not proof of anything about the fish.
The move
If you care about the difference, read the label — "wild" vs "farmed/Atlantic" — instead of trusting the color. Both can be fine; just know which one you're buying and why it looks the way it does.
Ask kiiwii
- Is farmed salmon less healthy?
- What is astaxanthin?
- How do I tell wild from farmed?
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