Salmon With a Tan
Salmon With a Tan
Salmon, one of the most popular fish in North America has all but disappeared from its natural habitat. Why? Because people just love it. Love the way it tastes, smells and looks. It seems we just can't get enough. Because of this, most of the salmon we eat today comes from farms where the fish are fattened and primed to meet the demands of an ever-increasing market. Even the salmon's colour is subject to manipulation, as shade is a determining factor in consumer selection. Wild salmon gets its pink colour from pigments in its food, such as shrimp.
However, the story behind the blushing hue of farmed salmon is not so rosy. Canthaxanthin, a colouring agent used in foods and drugs, is added to the feed of farmed salmon and trout to enhance the colour of the flesh. This pigment, belonging to the same family as beta-carotene, confers an orange shade. Canthaxanthin is also added to chicken feed to make egg yolks and carcasses more yellow. The story would end here, were it not for some concerns about canthaxanthin's effects on the human body...
It turns out that canthaxanthin is responsible for causing 'canthaxanthin retinopathy', or a multitude of retinal disorders affecting sight. Canthaxanthin and its metabolites can cause crystallisation around or on the retina, blocking nerve signals and causing 'white flashes' and other such problems. Though usually this occurs at higher doses, the condition develops sooner in those with already diseased retinas. For this reason, canthaxanthin content of animal feed is being carefully regulated.
Consumers love a deep shade and so farmers are pumping fish feed stuffs with high doses of the additive to make up for its natural breakdown in the salmon. Presently, the acceptable daily intake of canthaxanthin for a human is 0.03mg/kg of body weight, yet the average intake from just one serving of fish is over twice that amount. For this reason, the Scientific Committee on Animal Nutrition lobbied the European Commission of Health and Consumer Protection for the lowering of the accepted maximum content of canthaxanthin in food for fish and chickens to 25 mg/kg of feed. This would bring a human's daily intake down to the accepted level. In light of the potential adverse effects of canthaxanthin on the human body, the committee's recommendation was for farmers to seek other pigments for their livestock.
What is canthaxanthin's status in North America? Northrop Scientific and other companies market it as a sunless tanner! Canthorex is a 'skin-care product' in the form of a capsule containing a high dose of 'pure canthaxanthin'. It does just what it did for the salmon, gives a human a more desirable shade so that they might enjoy greater success in the marketplace! The daily intake recommended by this company is 4 mg/kg of body weight, over one hundred times higher then the acceptable daily intake in Europe. For this reason, many cases of canthaxanthin retinopathy have been observed in long-term users of oral tanning agents.
Some people may be surprised to discover that there are additives in what we deem to be 'natural' products such as fish and eggs. But maybe the problem lies with the consumer. Perhaps producers are just capitalising on our preoccupation with appearances. So long as we continue to judge the quality of our food by its shade, the marketing industry will act accordingly. In a world where fish wear makeup, one can't count on a pretty face!
Credits for "Salmon With a Tan"
By Lauren Lapointe-Shaw
Source: Everyday Science, McGill University (Reprinted with Permission).
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