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Comment by onesandofgrain | Hacker News Reader

Astaxanthin for the color fair. What about the salmon is bad for pregnant women?

Fatty fish accumulates heavy metales and other unhealthy components and pregnant women in Norway is told to limit the intake. But it has been controversial, the industry is not happy with these recommendations!

I thought this was true for tuna and somewhat never registered it might be true for salmon too. I need to look this up and update, thank you.

Generally speaking, heavy metals accumulate as you move up the food chain, so it will be true for any large fish.

From their food and over time, I assume? Since farmed salmon is fed and live a short life I would also assume that it has lower pollution levels than wild fish of similar size and composition.

You are exactly wrong. Farmed salmon has very high levels of heavy metals and PCB because the water where they are farmed is slow moving accumulate pollution. Wild ocean fish swim in the open ocean where overall pollution is less. That’s why if you buy omega 3 tablets it needs to be from ocean fish otherwise you’re getting a high level of toxic chemicals.

I can see this being sensible regarding, for example, swordfish, which is long lived apex predator. They get the bio accumulation of everything they eat. Farm salmon has a short life and a controlled diet. Where would they get heavy metals?

From what I understand the fjord are relatively enclosed ecosystems and tend to accumulate stuff from the human acitivies around it

Can you link to those recommendations? I can't find anything on the Norwegian public health sites specifically about farmed salmon.

It seems public health recommendations where walked back after the controversy in the early 2010's, so it is not an official recommendation anymore.

Here are some of the studies and debates from back then:

- Chronic Consumption of Farmed Salmon Containing Persistent Organic Pollutants Causes Insulin Resistance and Obesity in Mice (2011): https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...

- Are environmental pollutants in the Norwegian diet harmful to children?: https://tidsskriftet.no/en/2017/02/perspectives/are-environm...

The US FDA meanwhile maintains this page:

https://www.fda.gov/food/consumers/advice-about-eating-fish

It tells you why a pregnant woman should eat some fish, and which fish are safest.

The metal in fish is a concern, but can be mitigated fairly well.

> Astaxanthin for the color fair.

Why is it fair? Wild salmon also consume astaxanthin.

It’s like complaining that the farmers are bad for trying to mimic the fish’s natural diet.

Farmed salmon meat is pink, whereas wild salmon meat is white/greyish. A dull color.

They don’t put the coloring in the food to emulate natural food sources. They do it because it looks more appealing to most consumers.

The colour on wild salmon meat depends on the diet of the salmon, in the same way as for farmed salmon. All the wild salmon I have fished, even before salmon farming was big, have had red/pink meat since krill and shrimps are a large part of their diet in my area

> wild salmon meat is white/greyish. A dull color.

You had not seen a lot of wild salmon, apparently.

Is called salmon color for something. Sea trouts are the fishes with whitish meat normally. Both wild and cultured trouts can have "salmon" colored meat when feed on a diet rich in carotenes.

All of this looks like the typical smear campaign online when Chinese need more time to develop some product.

And then, suddenly, the plague of videos of "electric vehicles" burning on a garage vanished overnight. And now we can purchase Chinese electric vehicles.

I dont know what the fuck u r talking bout.

Growth hormones. It’s better now than some years ago, but still. Some claim the do not use them at all.

And they use a lot of antibiotics.

And there is some accumulation of dioxins and PCBs in the fat due to the feed, but this has also been approved somewhat.

>Some claim the do not use them at all.

It is against the law in most if not all EU countries. It is also the dispute between US and EU agriculture trade.

FWIW, Norway is not a member of the EU - if that is what you are implying.

If that is not your point, I apologize, but then I don’t see the connection (maybe you could elaborate?)

But Norway is part of the EEA and is therefore bound by many EU regulations.

Compared to most other meat production farmed salmon does not use a lot of antibiotics

> Growth hormones

Would be antieconomic and is useless. But If you have recent data about this, please show the data. Take in mind that human growth hormones don't work in fishes if I remember correctly.

> And they use a lot of antibiotics.

Antibiotics like, for example?

Terrestrial farms are totally different than sea farms. I don't think that Norwegians use more antibiotics than Thailand Panga farmers. Crustacicides, I'm sure that they use it, but "lots of" antibiotics claim... I'm sceptical about this.

Comparing traditional aquaculture with Marine aquaculture is like saying that an ox chart and an electric vehicle are the same thing.

PCB contamination passed on from their fish meal in 2004, not sure if it's still an issue.

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