While salmon is often touted as a healthy, natural food, synthetic ingredients may be lurking in your slice of the sea.
Loaded with omega-3 fatty acids (and readily available at most grocery stores), salmon is a popular choice for health-conscious people looking to add healthy fats and protein into their food rotation.
Is Trader Joe’s hiding a fishy secret?
In a viral video with more than 130,000 views, TikToker Emily Pesch (@whoisemilypesch) made a shocking discovery when looking at her salmon fillet packaging from Trader Joe’s.
“Why are we as a country like this?” Pesch asks in the clip.
Pesch explains that she usually buys wild salmon, but since she was going out of town and wasn’t sure if she’d finish the entire fillet, she bought the cheaper farmed salmon.
As she looked at the ingredients two words stood out: “Color added.”
“Why do we need to be adding color to this? I don’t need you to add color to my salmon for me to eat it. Like, why do we need to do this?” Pesch asks.
Turns out this is a common practice.
While Pesch seemed to think her fish was dyed with something like Red 40, a sustainable fish blog explained that when salmon is labeled as “color added” that means they were given a pigment called astaxanthin.
This pigment occurs in certain algae and is what makes flamingos pink, crabs orage, and salmon red-orange. Also popular as a human supplement, astaxanthin is an antioxidant and a good source of vitamin E, Seattle Fish added.
@whoisemilypesch keep ur red dye number 5 out of my salmon thank u! #salmon #reddye #traderjoes #cleaneating #cooking ♬ original sound – whoisemilypesch
Red 40: A controversial food dye
Red 40 is among several common dyes used to make brightly colored foods and beverages like candies and sports drinks. These dyes have no nutritional value and are mainly used to make food look more attractive.
While the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) deemed these dyes safe, they’re still highly controversial. Studies suggest a “small but significant” association between artificial food dyes and hyperactivity in children, Healthline reported.
While some believe dyes cause cancer, scientific studies say that only Red 3 (which has been largely replaced by Red 40) was linked to cancer risk, but more research needs to be conducted overall.
Wild salmon vs. farmed salmon
Wild-caught salmon are caught in natural environments like oceans, rivers, or lakes. They eat other organisms found in their natural environment, Healthline reported.
Farmed salmon comes from fish farms, where salmon are raised specifically for human consumption. They tend to be fed a high-fat, high-protein, and processed diet with the goal of making them larger.
Because of the differences in their diets, wild-caught salmon tends to be lower in fat and higher in calcium, iron, and cholesterol. Both have a healthy omega-3 to omega-6 ratio.
Wild salmon tends to be more expensive than farmed salmon.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that by 2030 fish farms will provide about two-thirds of the worldwide fish humans eat.
Commenters react
“Wait. Trader Joe’s meat is all sooooo sus,” a top comment read.
“Close to everything has dye. I’ve stopped eating so much ‘junk’ food or anything with added dye. It’s honestly ridiculous (now that I’m actually looking),” a person said.
“I’ve seen color added to such stupid stuff like just leave it out,” another wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Pesch for comment via email and Instagram direct message and to Trader Joe’s via email.
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