How to Be a Conscious Eater

what the farmed salmon are fed, which is a face-scrunching

blend of pellets made from fish oil and fish meal (derived from

larger fish), soy and wheat, and sundry by-products of slaugh-

tered farm animals. Excuse me, but what’s a fish doing eating

a cow!? Talk about Frankenfood.

PCBs. Unfortunately, methylmercury isn’t the only toxic chem-

ical that finds its way into our fish supply. After years of

agricultural and industrial uses, chemicals including poly-

chlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were banned decades ago

because of suspected ties to cancer and skin and liver harm.

But their waste streams have left residual contamination in

waters that fish inhabit. Though reports vary, several studies

have found that PCB levels are much higher in farm-raised

salmon, which is likely caused by the way PCBs concentrate

in oils and fat, which fish meal is high in. Consuming high

amounts poses risks during pregnancy and early infancy,

and the higher up the food chain a fish is, and the more a fish

eats lots of other fish, the more PCBs it’s likely to have. If this

sounds familiar, it’s the same principle of bioaccumulation

that puts predator fish at the top of the no-no list for mercury.

Unfortunately, fattier fish have more PCBs, and those are the

ones at the top of the yes-yes list for omega-3s. (It’s exhausting,

I know. Believe me!)

Pink dye. Krill are also what give wild salmon its enticing bright

pink color. To mimic that color in farmed salmon, artificial

coloring is added to feed pellets, which the fish flesh absorbs.

Salmon farmers use the dye to get their product to sell, since

consumer research shows that almost no one is psyched about

eating a fish fillet that’s gray. The health effects of the dye are

not yet understood, but in the interest of transparency, many

consumers want to know.

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