Fish Farm Follies - By Barry Estabrook (2008)

Is it possible to be too green? If you are a farm fished salmon, the answer is yes.

Last week, the Victoria Times Colonist and other Canadian newspapers reported that the American Food and Drug Administration had found traces of the potential carcinogen malachite green in United States–bound salmon fillets from a British Columbia aquaculture operation called Creative Salmon Company. Malachite green is a fungicide that has been banned for use in food production for the last 15 years. The paper said that Spencer Evans, the company’s general manager, was “flabbergasted” by the findings.

One wonders why. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency found the same chemical in Creative Salmon fish as recently as 2005.

On a More Hopeful Note . . .

Conscientious consumers may soon have an alternative to farmed British Columbia salmon. Efforts to qualify B. C.’s wild salmon fisheries as sustainable under the strict standards of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) moved ahead this month when the council sent the sockeye fishery’s application out for peer review, bringing it one step closer to being able to display the MSC’s coveted blue-and-white logo.

Here is a reponse from T.Rundel of Creative Salmon (thank you for your response 5/09)
"Regarding Creative Salmon was that it was a mistake by the FDA"
http://www.creativesalmon.com/CS%20Press%20Release%20Feb%201_08.pdf
Click here for the follow up article

Other points of view:
http://bit.ly/AZIFc
http://focb.org/index.html
http://www.gourmet.com/food/2008/05/fishguide
http://bit.ly/BECll