Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelevision
They add a chemical called astaxanthin in their food. Without the chemical in their feed, the farm-raised salmon would naturally be white.
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Salmon in the wild eat crustaceans (shrimp, krill, etc) that feed on astaxanthin. Without the shrimp and krill in their diet, the wild salmon would naturally be white (gray).
From
here as well as other sources:
Salmon are unable to produce astaxanthin on their own, so they accumulate it through their diet. The more astaxanthin-containing prey they eat, the redder their flesh becomes.
Wild salmon and farmed salmon are the same color. If farmed salmon are fed the astaxanthin that wild salmon eat, then farmed salmon are red. If wild salmon cannot find enough astaxanthin-rich food then wild salmon are white. Wild salmon and farmed salmon are the same color and neither is injected with dye.
EDIT: It looks like no one claimed that farmed salmon were injected, the assertion was they were dyed. In as much as they are fed a diet that turns them pink then yes, I suppose they are fed a dye. It needs to be noted that the pink color of wild salmon comes from the same exact dye in their diet.