A USDA-led study has found that farmed Atlantic salmon sampled from retailers in the mid-Atlantic region contains up to 63.8% less EPA and 47.5% less DHA — two omega-3 fatty acids tied to heart health — than older federal nutrition data indicated.
The research, published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, examined eight farmed Atlantic salmon fillets purchased from stores in the mid-Atlantic, a region spanning Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Researchers pointed to changes in fish feed as a likely cause, noting that salmon farms increasingly use plant-based oils instead of marine fish oils.
Chef Andrew Zimmern, a James Beard Award winner and co-author of “The Blue Food Cookbook,” is urging consumers not to abandon farmed salmon over the findings. “What we should be calling for is not to eliminate farmed seafood. How do we make it better?” Zimmern told Fox News Digital.
Zimmern raised questions about how well an eight-fillet sample from one region can represent an entire global industry. He said he has visited salmon farms in Chile personally and seen wide variation in quality.
“There are some really good ones and [there are some] that are not so good,” he said.
He argued that pulling back on farmed fish consumption creates its own problems. “The question is what’s going to replace it? We have a very reactionary society. Right? You can’t take away millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, pounds of food globally and not replace it with something else,” Zimmern said.
A USDA spokesperson defended the study’s scope, telling Fox News Digital that “the number of samples was based on standard methods used to evaluate whether nutrient levels have changed meaningfully since earlier analyses.” The agency also said the results shouldn’t scare people away from the fish counter.
“The study found that farmed Atlantic salmon remains a nutritious source of omega-3 fatty acids and other key nutrients,” the USDA spokesperson said.
Zimmern has previously argued that shoppers should focus less on the wild-versus-farmed label and more on how and where their seafood was actually produced. He said seafood gets held to a standard other proteins don’t face.
“Seafood has to prove itself innocent all the time, because everybody assumes it’s just guilty, guilty, guilty,” Zimmern said.
