<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Aquacultured salmon and celiac diseasehere is a statement from a major farmer of fish:

----

In salmon aquaculture, there is no time to hold the fish in a pond after harvest for such a long time as algae may grow. Salmon is harvested from the cage in the ocean and transported directly to the processing plant, slaughtered and processed for gutting and filleting.  We do not hold harvested fish again in a pond on land or in the ocean. So, there is no concern about "use of barley straw in a pond". 

Fish are fed those grain-containing feed.  However, fish are starved for at least 5 days prior to harvest in order to clear out the gut and firm up the flesh. During this period all feed are digested, absorbed and metabolized into energy source for fish.  On the very rare occasion that feed is left in the gut, you can be assured that extra precautions are taken at the whole fish washing step in our process to clean the fish.  

Salmon that are going on to filleting are kept in salt/ice/water slush overnight. 
The scaling process involves a water spray and the fish go into a clean salt/ice/water slush. 
The filleting machine and pin bone machines incorporate water sprays. 
There is also a fillet washer and dryer installed on the conveyor belt just prior to the grading station. 

So as you can see there is virtually no way that feed could contaminate a fillet. And there is no reported case of incident regarding celiac disease caused by aquacultured salmon as far as I know. Therefore, we are confident to say that eating salmonid fed on diet containing wheat (source of gluten) will not lead to celiac disease.

If you need further information, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for your inquiry. 

Jim Kim 
Quality Assurance Manager 
Stolt Sea Farm Inc. 
350 Long Beach Blvd. 
Stratford, CT 06615 
[log in to unmask]

* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *