SALMON WARNING

San Jose Business Journal ^ | Fri, Jan. 09, 2004 | Jessica Portner

[nickcarraway]

Diners who are partial to salmon should avoid most farm-raised varieties, which often contain dangerous levels of cancer-causing contaminants, according to a major new international study that compared commercially bred salmon with their wild counterparts.

The orange-fleshed fish can harbor so many toxic substances that salmon eaters in the San Francisco area should ration their intake to one eight-ounce farmed salmon steak every two months, the researchers found. The two-year study, published today in the journal Science, found that farm-raised salmon has about 10 times the level of environmental toxins of wild fish -- largely because the farmed variety are fed other fish harvested from waters close to sources of industrial runoff.

[the Real fifi]

Check out the organizations behind this on ActivistCash.com..More ridiculous food scaremongers. The FDA says its safe especially when cooked and that most of the farm raised salmon eaten here is from Chile where there is no significant problem.

[Tall_Texan]

"We salmon....and we hope you like salmon too..."

- Bob Marley and the "Whalers"

[Russ]

No more than a month ago I heard a news report that said we should eat only farm raised salmon because the wild salmon contained high amounts of mercury. Screw it, I'll eat whatever I feel like eating...

[Petronski]

Is there anything the food police says I can eat?

Soy paste.

[Petronski]

Is there anything the food police says I can eat?

Let me amend that answer:

Soy paste, and anything less enjoyable.

[Steely Tom]

Oh, boy, a new study that says we shouldn't be eating something that's healthy, delicious, and relatively inexpensive. Good thing these studies are always totally valid, and are never retracted after a few months with the retraction being printed at the bottom of page D35 of the New York Times.

(steely)

[Catspaw]

Soy paste. Oh, yum.

Yes, the perfect diet would be to eat white spongy blocks of "food" that tastes like nothing.

[TaxRelief]

Here's the link to the study (there's no mention of UM):

http://www.pewtrusts.com/pdf/salmon_study.pdf

Of interesting note, is their own statement that

"Individual contaminant concentrations in
farmed and wild salmon do not exceed U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) action
or tolerance levels for PCBs and dieldrin
(26). However, FDA action and tolerance
levels are not strictly health-based, do not
address the health risks of concurrent exposure
to more than one contaminant, and do
not provide guidance for acceptable levels of
toxaphene and dioxins in fish tissue (27–29)."

Footnotes:
26. U.S. FDA, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition,
Fish and Fisheries Products Hazards and Controls Guidance, ed. 3, chap. 9 (available at www.cfsan.fda.gov/~acrobat/haccpc09.pdf).
27. R. E. Reinert, B. A. Knuth, M. A. Kamrin, Q. J. Stober,
Fisheries 16, 5 (1991).
28. U.S. FDA, Fed. Regist. 49, 21514 (1984).

1991? 1984? Oh! Please.

The peer review of this study, undoubtedly, will be a tad scathing.

[okimhere]

Good thing these studies are always totally valid, and are never retracted after a few months with the retraction being printed at the bottom of page D35 of the New York Times.

That's exactly what I said to someone yesterday who believed the study!! Well, except for the NYTs part. Just ANY media buries the "oops, we goofed" message.

I was in an auto dealership waiting room when the TV announcement first ran and every person there turned to someone else, grinned and said "pffft!" or sounds to that effect. We eat lots of farm-raised salmon and will keep on doing it.

[SevenDaysInMay]

Juiced in lemon &/or lime. It even looks cooked.

The men of Lewis & Clark preferred killing and eating dogs bought from indians to the abundant fresh cooked or smoked wild salmon.

That after eating an average 9# of game meat/day for month after month. At least they could make clothing from indians' fido, after every meal. Sicning.

[Bernard Marx]

The report found that farmed fish in European countries had the highest toxic load.

So let the EU solve its own problems. Americans should buy only domestically-farmed salmon or salmon from Chile, etc. if they can't find or afford wild salmon.

I just pulled two alder-flavored Atlantic beauties out of the smoker this morning. I don't worry about scare stories like this: consider the source.

[Maigrey]

Sounds like a bunch of hooey to me, along with tainted research methods.

[Arkie2]

An article in Scientific American

[Eva]

The Pew trust is another leftist controlled fund, much like the FORD Foundation.

[adam_az]

SOYlent GREEN PASTE IS PEOPLE!

[adam_az]

Actually fermented soy paste is delicious and healthy to use in cooking or for soup... it's called Miso. Tempeh and tofu are both pretty good too, if you cook them right.

[Age of Reason]

Also, did you know that the color of farm raised salmon flesh gray?

They artificially dye the flesh to imitate the flesh of wild salmon, which gets its pink color from certain of the wild food it eats.

[Carry_Okie]

But wild salmon is definitely superior to fram-raised, not least in flavor.

Good wild salmon is superior. However, The wild product is more variable. There are often bruised and spoiled fish off the boats. As far as omega-3 goes, the aquaculture industry is fixing that by adding flax seed to the feed.

[GladesGuru]

You, Sir, are at grave risk from such salmon. It is my considered professional opinion that, for your own good, all such salmon should be shipped via air to me for safe disposal.
:) :)

[Mike Darancette]

Wild salmon caught off the California coast was not included in the study.

Because they probably glow in the dark and have vestigial legs.