Safe salmon shopping
Where your salmon is caught, species, and whether farmed or wild are all essential knowledge in order to be a safe seafood shopper.
The safest choice is wild-caught salmon from Chile and Alaska. Farm-raised salmon from Chile and Washington are almost as safe.
As far as which species, wild sockeye from Alaska or Chile has the lowest tissue levels of pollutants.
Coho is next lowest and king salmon third.
Wild sockeye can be safely consumed one to two times a month during pregnancy and breastfeeding and among children under eight. Weekly for the rest of us.
Norway accounts for about one third of all farm-raised salmon, but it’s best to avoid during pregnancy, breast feeding, and for children and adults. In case you are consuming European or Atlantic salmon, farm raised from eastern Canada is preferred over European. Farmed European is safer than wild, which was found to have three times more contamination. Consuming wild salmon throughout Europe is probably best kept a memory.
Downright dangerous? Farm-raised salmon from Scotland and the Faroe Islands are fleshy repositories of PCBs and dioxin, a byproduct of chlorine bleaching that is thousands of times more potent than DDT and measured in the parts per trillion. These cuts should not be consumed.
Ingredients
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