Things that make you go hmmm (Seafood Package Labeling)

[Michael_in_TX]

Prior to cooking my salmon this evening, I read all of the text on the fresh seafood label. My grocery store, like many, will give instructions for how to cook the fish (or other meat) in various ways....on the grill, pan-fried, or in the oven. It's interesting to see how these instruction differ.

In any case, I tossed the package in the trash so the cats wouldn't get it and hide under the bed for the next five years.

After I ate the salmon (so good), I jolted upright. Hey....waitaminute.... I bolted to the kitchen trashcan and retrieved the now-crumbled packaging. Yes, it did say what I thought it did!

Here we go:

Fresh Atlantic Salmon
Farm-Raised
Product of Chile

I'll give you a moment. Don't see it? Consider a map of South America. On what ocean does Chile border?

Yes, yes, I'm being utterly pedantic. Of course, it is salmon, originally native to the Atlantic, now bred in farms in Chile, whose only coastline borders a completely different ocean.

But....it has the ring of something like....Fresh Alaskan Cod, Farm-Raised, Product of Texas.

[Jerod Broussard]

Yeah but if you are on a farm I'm pretty sure you ain't in the ocean. Wonder why they don't just pump in Pacific Salmon, if the farms are close enough?

[Steve B]

Just knew it.
Panhead John is a salmon farmer.
And trying to pass it off as legit.
How far is he willing to go. 🤷🏼

[Panhead John]

You should try my farmed coca products from Peru.

[Steve B]

Panhead John I have enough trouble sleeping at night. 😳😂

[jfmorris]

The only farmed fish I will buy is catfish raised here in the US. Otherwise unless it’s not wild caught and from the US or maybe Northern Europe, I’ll pass.

[JCBBQ]

I watched Seaspiracy on Netflix. The part on farm raised fish was so disgusting that I’m right there with you.

[BBQPhil]

Concidering labels, I'm still surprised to read on the labels for Costco's prime sirloin and rib eye steaks: "Blade Tenderized."

[jfmorris]

Yep, and that’s why I don’t buy precut steaks at Costco anymore, now that I know the dangers it implies for cooking to less than well done. I only buy primal cuts there.

[TheQuietOne]

I guess blade tenderized sounds better than pre-chewed.

[SmokeyGator]

Label on the last salmon I bought says:

Atlantic Salmon
Farm Raised


CONTAINS SALMON

The good news is there is no trout!

[Panhead John]

Imagine the horror! Salmon and Trout mix…OMG!

[Polarbear777]

Once got a bag of peanuts from a vending machine that said "MAY CONTAIN PEANUTS".

"May"?…

[Michael_in_TX]

So, not knowing anything about farm-raising of fish, I've been idling researching it this evening. Huh. I think I've read enough that I really don't want to be eating farm-raised fish and, if I do, it has got to be fish farmed in the United States due to the stronger regulatory requirements.

Yet, sustainable wild-caught fish is pricey, but I just paid off my car, so I think I know where that money is going now.

(Also, there is a high probability that the pink color of my Chilean farm-raised salmon is due to what is effectively a dye in the food they are fed. YUCK.)

[jfmorris]

Yep. You do NOT want farm raised salmon from Chile or pretty much any other place in South America or Asia.

[latenight71]

Not for nuthin', I've had some pretty tasty farmed fish. Had some tasty brine-shrimp fed, fresh-water trout up near Paisley, OR, nearly 38 years ago and I still remember it. fresh caught from a stocked pond then cleaned and de-scaled and bbq cooked whole slathered with mayo and your favorite BBQ sauce. I repeated this cook a couple years back after my daughter caught a few trout from a stocked pond near Mammoth Lakes, CA. it works. i recommend it.

[jfmorris]

I think the stocked ponds, of which I fished in a few as a kid, are entirely different than the modern fish farms in Chile and other places.

[Michael_in_TX]

(Wow, this has taken me down a rabbit hole.)

One of the most reputable websites on sustainable seafood seems to be Monterrey Bay Aquarium's www.seafoodwatch.org.

Here is what they say about Chilean farmed salmon:

Atlantic salmon farmed in Chile in marine net pens is on the "Avoid" list. The high volume of antibiotics and pesticides that are used to control diseases and sea lice parasites is a critical concern. In addition, the dominant antibiotic treatments, florfenicol and oxytetracycline, are listed as highly important for human medicine by the World Health Organisation. Antibiotics and pesticides are both used, on average, more than two times per production cycle.

https://www.seafoodwatch.org/recomme...en?species=302

[smokenoob]

no wonder I’m turning red, itchy, and have ‘t had an infection recently……

[Wedunne]

If you're ever in the Monterey area, the Aquarium is well worth a visit. The whole Monterey area is well worth a visit, for that matter. It can be surprisingly chilly in the summertime, though.

[surfdog]

Ya beat me to it...was just about to post a link to SeafoodWatch.
They’ve been my "go to" for many years.

Long before apps, I used to get their paper guides for California & Hawaii. Then I got their app. (Which is no longer supported.) But it’s easy enough to add the online guide to a phone.

https://www.seafoodwatch.org/recommendations/add-seafood-watch-to-your-phone

Or download a PDF guide.

https://www.seafoodwatch.org/recommendations/download-consumer-guides

[FireMan]

I recently entered a post on another thread where the "salmon" was from the "cool waters of Patagonia". Caught my attention. So I looked up where Patagonia is. It sorta there, and over there & a little over there. It also is probably not in the Ocean, where I’m going to guess the waters are frigid not cool. One has to place very close attention to where the food supply you are consuming and where & how it’s coming to your table. It is not the easiest thing in eating "real food".

[smokenoob]

hmmmmm, kinda like the Japanese city they named Usa

[FireMan]

Then again, to quote from a quote from another thread : Who gives a rip! "you could lay in a hospital bed & die of nothing".

[bbqLuv]

How fresh is a Farm-raised salmon that is shipped here from Chile?
Are they Fresh Frozen? and if they are frozen are they fresh?
happy BBQ to all, and to all a good smoke

[smokin fool]

Local grocery store here sells British Columbia farm raised salmon.
Like most things raised domestically it costs an arm and a leg. We only buy if it’s on sale.
Chilean farmed salmon much like my Mexican t-bone experiment is probably ungraded fish as well so they ship anything and everything.
To me there’s a major taste difference between wild ocean fed and farmed salmon being fed food pellets.

[FireMan]

Food pellets PLUS!

[ssandy_561]

If you want a reason to never eat fish again watch Seaspiracy on Netflix. It gets you thinking.

As with all documentaries it’s probably only telling the one side of the picture.

[rickgregory]

(rolled eyes). That movie has been taken to task by fisheries folks for... questionable science. https://sustainablefisheries-uw.org/...of-seaspiracy/

[JCBBQ]

rickgregory thanks for this. I watched that movie, was horrified, but felt to it had to be misrepresenting info to a certain extent.