On Mon, 19 Jan 2004 09:49:51 EST, Alex Shvartsman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Here is some recent news:
>
>Farm-raised salmon, which is the kind commonly sold in grocery stores,
>contain significantly more cancer-causing chemicals than salmon that are
caught in
>the wild, warn researchers from the University at Albany in New York, who
>tested 700 salmon worldwide
>
>Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration insists the levels of 13
>pollutants found in salmon are too low for serious concern, this new
international
>study shows that farm-raised salmon have enough dioxins and other
potentially
>cancer-causing pollutants that the researchers are cautioning consumers to
eat
>salmon no more than once a month. The Associated Press reports that the
>average dioxin level in farmed-raised salmon was as 11 times higher than
that in
>wild salmon--1.88 parts per billion compared with 0.17 ppb. For PCBs, the
>average was 36.6 ppb in farm-raised salmon and 4.75 in wild salmon
>
>Answers to the big questions:
>Where is most of the salmon farmed that we eat in the United States? Chile.
>And that's good news. The pollutant level in Chilean salmon was not too
much
>higher than that found in some wild-caught salmon, notes AP.
>Where are these contaminants coming from? The feed, which is made of fish
oil
>and meal from just a few species of ocean fish. This concentrates the ocean
>contaminants to which the farm-raised salmon are exposed. Wild salmon eat a
>greater variety. When any fish or animal absorbs these pollutants, they are
>stored as fat and not secreted. So if the fish has the contaminates in its
fat and
>the fish is eaten by a human, the contaminants that were in the fish are
then
>stored in the human's fat. However, the salmon farming industry points out
>that all the pollutant levels are well within the FDA's legal limits,
notes AP.
>
>Will the farmers change the feed? Many salmon farmers in the United States,
>Canada, and Chile doing just that. But it's a slow process. Instead of
using
>fish oil in the salmon feed, they are switching to soybean oil and canal
oil,
>which don't have the pollutants.
>What level of pollutants is considered safe? The government does not have
one
>set level of dioxins and PCBs that is considered safe in foods.
>What can you do as a consumer? Until the farmers change the feed they use,
>your best bet is to buy wild salmon. Wild salmon sells for about $15 a
pound,
>compared with $4 to $5 a pound charged for farm-raised salmon.
>Will cooking help remove pollutants? If you do eat farm-raised salmon, the
>FDA recommends cutting off the skin and grilling it. This will remove a
>significant amount of PCBs, dioxins, and other pollutants stored in the
fish fat.
>
>
>
>One a similar note, we have ground buffalo available in a local market, I
>called the company and they said that it is grain finished.  Do you think
it is
>still better than grain finished cow meat? Or just as bad?
>
>Alex

I have read in the past that the orange color of salmon comes from a
certain algae, or whatever, that they eat in the wild and since farm-raised
salmon don't eat the same foods, they have to be artificially colored.  I'd
just as soon make sure that I eat wild salmon, at any rate.

Aileen