THE RAW TRUTH
Wondering if that salmon sashimi you ordered is wild or farmed?
Unless it is identified in the menu as wild (or sockeye, coho or some other Pacific species), and costs a buck or two more, then you're likely eating farmed Atlantic salmon.
Can you tell the difference? Quite easily. Farmed salmon are marine couch potatoes; they spend their lives swimming in a pen, with minimal effort spent chasing down their fish pellets. No wonder their fat content is roughly three times higher than that of their wild Pacific cousins. The difference in texture is obvious: farmed sashimi is soft and flabby, while the wild is firm and dense.
The colour is different too. In the wild, salmon get their vibrant shade from carotenoids in the krill they eat. On the farm, their lighter pink hue is supplied by feeding them synthetic carotenoids. Fish farmers choose just what shade of peach their fish will be from the pharmaceutical company's colour swatch, like you'd find in a paint store. Finally, there's flavour. When eating them side-by-side, there's no mistaking them.
The wild is sweet and rich; it tastes like salmon. The farmed version is milder, less distinctive.
