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When a food makes it to Sam’s or
Costco, you may say it “has arrived”. If that’s the
case, salmon has not only arrived, but (with all the
grace of being) socially late. Salmon is to the new
millennium, what canned soup was to the fifties.
Farmed salmon, that is. It’s the best thing to hit
the supermarket since boneless skinless chicken
breasts. It’s available just about anywhere–from
Boise to Baton Rouge; it’s economical, sometimes
costing as little as 2.99 a pound; it’s season less,
just as plentiful in winter as it is in the summer;
and it’s heart healthy with loads of omega-3 fatty
acids, something chicken breasts can’t claim. So
what’s not to like?
 Plenty, according to environmental groups like the
Environmental Working Group and the Pew Charitable
Trust. According to these groups, farmed salmon is
guilty of many felonies, but principally of
endangering our health with high levels of PCBs.
Simply put, they’re wrong. The latest round of PCB
monitoring carried out by Salmon of the Americas (SOTA)
shows levels of PCBs in farmed salmon at about the
same levels as those from wild Alaska Chinook and
sockeye salmon. The latest SOTA testing found PCB
levels in farmed salmon to be 11.5 parts per billion
(ppb). These levels are virtually identical to those
from the most recent study done by the Alaska
Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC),
which found PCB levels in wild sockeye and Chinook
to be 10 ppb and 8.2 ppb respectively. These numbers
are about 1/200 of the FDA tolerance, which is 2000
ppb per fish.
In addition, the heart healthy benefits of farmed
salmon far outweigh any risks from PCBs.“In addition
to having three to four times the omega 3’s of other
fish, farmed salmon is inexpensive and readily
available,” says Kathleen Zelman, registered
dietitian in Marietta, GA. “And perhaps best of all
for the diet weary, it’s easy to prepare and tastes
great. Eating more salmon is an excellent means of
controlling calories in our weight-conscious society
while also providing an array of health benefits. It
is literally one of the best ways you can protect
your heart, and heart disease is the number one
killer in the United States today.”
For more information on SOTA, farmed salmon and
recipes, visit our website at
www.salmonoftheamericas.com .
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