What if we told you that the true color of salmon it is not orange? In a certain sense, when the salmon is born it is not orange, but the truth is that it becomes orange very soon, through life‘diet. The color of salmon meat depends in fact on the intake of a carotenoid called astaxanthinthe same pigment that gives color to apricots or tomatoes. This carotenoid is essential for the growth of salmon and depending on how much is taken in the diet it can make its meat a color that varies from pink to orange. The color of salmon depends not only on how much astaxanthin it takes, but also on how many chromatophores (cells that contain this pigment) are present in the various tissues: the more astaxanthin and the more chromatophores there are, the stronger the color of the meat will be. Color is not an indicator of quality, but the way in which the fish grow and feed makes the difference between wild and farmed salmon.
The color of salmon is caused by its diet
The cause of the pink-orange color of salmon (both wild and farmed) isastaxatina provitamin A that these fish take in with their diet. This is an important one antioxidant involved in ovarian development, hatching, growth and breathing of salmon. Astaxanthin also happens to be a carotenoid, a vegetable pigment, and this is precisely what is responsible for the pink-orange color of salmon meat.
Since it is a fundamental nutrient for this fish, astaxanthin is contained in the diets of both salmon, wild or farmed. The only difference is that wild salmon simply find it in nature, while farmed ones they receive it in their feed.
The color of the salmon therefore depends on the amount of astaxanthin contained in your diet: for this reason you can have salmon that vary from pink to more or less bright or faded orange.
In short, it is the same thing that happens in the difference between normal chickens and free-range chickens: the latter are free to roam around and eat more varied foods and for this reason their meat is yellower. Furthermore, carotenoids are not only responsible for the color of salmon. An example? Even flamingos are more or less pink based on how many carotenoids they consume!
Doesn’t the color difference in salmon also mean a difference in quality?
Even if it is a very important purchasing parameter for the consumer, color is not synonymous with freshness, quality and better flavor, because as we have seen it depends on the quantity of astaxanthin present in the diet.
Furthermore, the coloring depends on the amount of chromatophores present in his flesh. Chromatophores are cells capable of accepting pigment granules. In our case, the pigment is astaxanthin: once taken in by the salmon, it is transported in the blood to the muscles and skin where it is deposited thanks to the chromatophores. Different parts of the salmon may contain a different number of chromatophores, therefore leading to a more or less intense orange.
However, the differences in the diet of wild salmon compared to farmed salmon lead to other differences in terms qualitative And organoleptic. The percentage of fat and the type of fat (omega3 and omega6) changes between the two types. For those who recognize the difference, wild salmon has a different taste and then, clearly, it also costs more. In short, it is not the color that makes the difference.
Difference between wild salmon and farmed salmon
The salmon savages they are fished in the open sea and mostly come from Pacificespecially from Canada or Alaska. Everyone else is from farmthat is, they are raised under controlled conditions. Most farmed salmon come fromAtlanticfor example from Norway.
The difference in how salmon are grown or farmed also means a difference indiet. In the wild, salmon eat plankton and other fish. Farmed salmon also follows a balanced diet but its purpose is to growto be sold. For this reason, farmed salmon are fed with a combination of feed and fish oils that aim to emulate the typical diet of wild salmon.
Wild salmon can move freely and this allows them to have a more varied diet and a lower percentage of fat. Farmed salmon, on the other hand, is raised in tanks or in any case in portions of the sea delimited by nets.
