People all over the world love to eat salmon, which is a main ingredient in many dishes from those regions. It’s easy to spot salmon in the grocery store and in dishes like sushi and poke because of their bright pink, orange, and red colors. However, if you eat farm-raised salmon for dinner, that trademark color is probably fake. It’s caused by man-made chemicals added to the fish’s flesh to make it taste better to people.
Take a fresh salmon fillet out of the packaging and you’ll be greeted by its defining shade – a vibrant reddish-orange hue that looks like no other fish This distinctive salmon color is a key part of its appeal and recognition, But why is salmon orange in the first place?
The orange color comes down to one molecule – astaxanthin. Let’s explore what makes astaxanthin give salmon its trademark coloration and why wild salmon have deeper, more natural shades of orange than farmed.
Astaxanthin – The Carotenoid Pigment That Makes Salmon Orange
Astaxanthin is part of a class of antioxidant compounds called carotenoids that are responsible for red orange, and yellow colors in nature. Think carrots tomatoes, red peppers, lobsters, shrimp, and flamingos. Astaxanthin is particularly good at producing reddish-orange hues.
Astaxanthin builds up in salmon muscles when they eat foods like krill and shellfish that are high in this carotene. The more astaxanthin a salmon eats, the more red its meat actually is. Astaxanthin-rich crustaceans are eaten by wild salmon a lot more than by farmed salmon. This makes the color of wild salmon deeper red-orange.
Why Wild Salmon Have Natural, Vibrant Colors
Wild salmon get their orange hue honestly – it comes directly from their diverse diet in the open ocean. Here’s a breakdown of why wild salmon are so much more vibrantly colored than farmed:
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Eat More Shrimp & Krill Wild salmon eat way more carotenoid-rich shrimp, krill, and other small crustaceans that impart that rich orange pigmentation
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Access Natural Astaxanthin: Instead of adding man-made chemicals, wild salmon eat natural astaxanthin from their food, which has higher nutrient levels.
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Wider Variety of Prey: With a diverse buffet available, wild salmon’s color depends on what unique mix of creatures they eat.
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Genetic Variance in Color: Wild salmon populations have natural genetic diversity with some tending to be more deeply pigmented.
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Maturity & Spawning: As salmon mature and return to spawn, they accumulate more carotenoids, intensifying their color.
No two wild salmon are exactly the same because their color comes from the food they eat. A lot of different shades of orange show how diverse the marine food web is.
Why Farmed Salmon Appear More Pink Than Orange
Since farmed salmon are confined in pens, they miss out on feasting on wild crustaceans full of carotenoids. Instead, they are fed proprietary pellets that contain lower, yet still adequate levels of astaxanthin pigments.
To compensate for their bland diet and produce appetizing coloration, salmon farm feed contains added synthetic astaxanthin along with other chosen pigments like canthaxanthin. By precisely formulating pigments in the feed, farmers control the desired salmon shade which tends to be lighter and more pink than wild salmon.
Some other reasons farmed salmon have less vibrant color include:
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Limited exercise doesn’t promote muscle development and pigment integration.
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Mixing of various salmon species and origins leads to genetic dilution.
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No spawning maturation phase means less late-stage carotenoid accumulation.
While specially formulated feed lets farmers reliably produce reasonably colored salmon, it certainly lacks the visual appeal and depth of naturally feeding wild salmon.
Color Intensity Shows Quality and Diet
For seasoned salmon fans, the intensity of orange color gives a good indication of quality and background. Richly-pigmented dark orange fillets signal pristine wild salmon with a diverse carotenoid-loaded diet. Subtler peach and pinkish fillets are typical of farmed salmon.
Within wild salmon, deeper shades also correlate to heightened levels of healthy omega-3s and indicate maturity. Sockeye salmon in particular are prized for their flaming reddish-orange hues signifying a lifetime feasting on carotenoid-dense zooplankton.
So next time you admire a salmon fillet’s enticing orange color, remember it’s the work of astaxanthin!
How Other Factors Influence Salmon Color
While astaxanthin levels primarily dictate salmon color, a few other factors can cause subtle variations in their shades and intensity.
Species Differences
Each salmon species tends to exhibit characteristic coloration based on dietary preferences:
- Sockeye – Deepest red, heavy consumption of krill & zooplankton
- King – More muted orange/red, more fish in diet
- Coho – Pinkish-orange, intermediate diet
- Chum – Pale pink, more fish focused appetite
Spawning Maturity
As salmon cease feeding and mature when returning to spawn, they convert carotenoids to intensify flesh color so it’s deepest right before spawning.
Genetic Variance
Some wild salmon inherit traits that lead to increased or decreased astaxanthin absorption and deposition for heightened or faded color.
Habitat & Environment
The marine ecosystem where salmon feed influences availability of carotenoid-rich prey which facilitates color.
Processing & Storage
Freezing, curing, smoking, or cooking subtly alters appearance. Storage and age induce color fading over time.
Satisfy Your Craving for Vibrant Salmon Color
The vibrant orange-red colors of wild salmon fillets provide an enticing visual showcase that mirrors the healthfulness and quality within. When seeking the most indulgent salmon eating experience, choose wild salmon to enjoy astaxanthin-infused color at its natural, nutrient-packed best.
Gray or white
The flesh of farm-raised salmon would be gray if it weren’t for the addition of what is effectively a dye, to give the steaks and other cuts of the fish a pink hue. In captivity, salmon are not fed the same food they would eat in the wild but rather are most commonly given a kibble composed of fish and oils from smaller fish, gluten, chicken fat, and a hodgepodge of other ingredients. The farmer is also likely to be including synthetic astaxanthin as an additive. Synthetic astaxanthin is chemically different from the naturally occurring type, and has the primary purpose of dyeing the salmon’s flesh. The additive is very expensive for farmers, constituting about 20% of the total cost of feeding the salmon they are raising. Because consumers are not likely to purchase salmon that is not pink in color, farmers are forced to purchase and add the synthetic astaxanthin dye to the diet of their fish.
About 1 in 20 wild-caught Alaska king (or Chinook) salmon are white in hue. The lack of pink or red hue is due to their genetics and their resulting inability to metabolize the astaxanthin that they consume. Within recent history, when these fish were caught they would be sold for considerably less than their pink and red counterparts, but today they have been branded as “ivory” and are sold for a premium as a delicacy.
What are the different colors of salmon?
The color of salmon scales differs based on species. Many salmon have some silver scales, and these are generally complemented with other colors. When they live in the ocean, sockeye salmon are silver with a blue tint. But when they go back to their spawning grounds, they turn bright red and their heads turn green, which is why they are also called “red salmon.”
The truth is, though, that when we talk about salmon, we don’t usually mean the color of their scales. We mean the color of their flesh after they’ve been killed and cut up. This is in stark contrast to most other animals. When we talk about a dog’s color, or the color of other animals we eat, like cattle, we usually mean the color they are when they are alive, not the color of their meat.
When people talk about the color of salmon flesh, they might say it is white, pink, orange, or red. The amount of carotenoids, mostly astaxanthin, that a fish eats determines the color of its flesh. For the average consumer, darker fish is more valuable.
The color that we are most familiar with when it comes to salmon flesh is pink. The pink hue results from astaxanthin. In the wild, salmon obtain astaxanthin as a normal part of their diet, which consists of shrimp and krill that in turn consume microalgae and phytoplankton. These organisms produce astaxanthin naturally.
You may have noted that the flesh of farmed salmon in the stores is also pink. The diet of these fish is devoid of naturally occurring astaxanthin, as they are most often fed a dry kibble consisting of smaller fish and a variety of ingredients, often byproducts of other food production processes. To achieve the pink hue, farmers feed their fish a version of astaxanthin that is created synthetically using petrochemicals, as an additive to the kibble.
Salmon that have an orange hue to their flesh have consumed a larger amount of astaxanthin than the fish that have pink flesh, but less than those that appear red when killed and cut. For wild fish, whether their flesh is pink, orange, or red in hue is determined by how much astaxanthin they have been able to catch or find to consume as part of their natural diet, but for farmed fish astaxanthin is an additive. The company DSM provides a tool called SalmoFan that tells farmers how much synthetic astaxanthin to add to the feed of the fish they are raising in order to accomplish the desired color. This gives farmers the ability to essentially build-a-fish according to their specifications and market demand.
A red hue to salmon flesh means that while alive the fish ate a large amount of astaxanthin. Because of the high cost of synthetic astaxanthin, this color is typically found in wild-caught salmon. Most likely, farmers will feed their fish just enough of the additive to turn them pink or orange, but not enough to turn them a deep red.
Wild-caught sockeye salmon are the species of salmon that most frequently have a deep red hue to their flesh. The primary habitat of sockeye salmon is near the Bering Sea, which is home to a large number of astaxanthin-containing krill, which the fish consume as a dietary staple. Species of salmon that tend to live further south, such as king and coho, usually have flesh that is a less vibrant orange or pink.
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FAQ
Is salmon naturally orange?
Is salmon supposed to look orange?
Is it safe to eat salmon with color added?
What color should fresh salmon be?
Why is salmon orange?
Salmon is orange, pink or even red for the same exact reason: they consume carotenoids, an antixodant that gives salmon its color. In the wild, salmon regularly consume a diet rich in a caratenoid called astaxanthin, and the natural color of salmon flesh reflects this. Farmed salmon, in contrast, get their carotenoids from manmade pellets.
Why does salmon have a bright color?
Salmon are well known for the vibrant hues of their flesh, but the reality is that in most cases this hue is the result of additives given to farmed fish because they are not offered the same foods that their wild counterparts are eating.
What color is salmon?
Salmon further south—Coho, king, and pink, for instance—eat relatively less krill and shrimp, giving them a lighter orange hue. Like their wild cousins, farmed salmon come in a spectrum of pinks and oranges, depending on diet. But it’s the farmers—and not the food chain—that determine the salmon’s color.
Why does salmon turn orange if you eat carrots?
Have you ever heard that if you eat a bunch of carrots, you’ll turn orange? Salmon is orange, pink or even red for the same exact reason: they consume carotenoids, an antixodant that gives salmon its color. In the wild, salmon regularly consume a diet rich in a caratenoid called astaxanthin, and the natural color of salmon flesh reflects this.