Salmon is 'WHITE'

Salmon is 'WHITE'

In South Korea, as much as chocolate milk is popular, yellow colored banana milk is a very popular flavored milk which is commonly sold in any type of market. Most banana milk is marketed in a yellow color bottle while the milk itself is also yellow. However, one banana milk product named ‘바나나는 원래 하얗다’ which translates as 'bananas are originally white' rebelled against the common yellow banana milk.

Banana peel might be yellow but the flesh of the fruit itself is white. Thus, the yellow color of banana milk is somewhat controversial but consumers weren’t aware as ‘banana is yellow’ is a bit of common sense.

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Of course, for every kind of fruit and vegetable, most of the distinctive flavor is in the peel and zest, so the yellow milk may have the zest to intensify the banana flavor or it just merely have food coloring as the common sense. (Food coloring itself doesn't impose any kind of dangerous material.)

However, the ‘banana is originally white’ product gave us a great insight on how common consumers may perceive products. Like how this product told the story that banana is originally white, how would consumers feel if they were told that salmons are white either?

 

 

There are various ways to categorize edible fish. One method is to categorize fish with the flesh color. Red fish are often named Akami (赤, This means red fish in Japanese) while flesh colored fish is called Shiromi (白, This means white fish in Japanese.) Do not confuse this method with the white fish/oily fish categorization method. For example, in sushi dining, whitefish often refers to fish that do not have much oil which in contrast oily fish have much oil.

The difference between red fish and white fish isn't solely determined by the color of the flesh it is also determined by the substances in the flesh. Red flesh fish include tuna, mackerel and sardines while white fish include salmon halibut and cod.

 

 

Red flesh fish usually 'migrate in long distance and have a high hemoglobin and myoglobin component. The redness comes from the oxidized iron of the hemoglobin and myoglobin. Most of the muscle of the red flesh is the slow stretch muscle. White fish don't have a high content of myoglobin and hemoglobin. Mostly the fast stretch muscle form white fish and they appear white in contrast with red fish.[1]

 

 

Hemoglobin and myoglobin both are an amino acid subunit structure with an iron atom. Like how rusty iron appear red, the oxidized iron in hemoglobin and myoglobin makes the flesh of red fish appear red just like how human blood and muscle is red.

The hemoglobin and myoglobin and whether ‘fish are migratory’ aren’t a definitive factor to categorize red fish and white fish nor the nature of the fish.

For example highly migratory sword fish have white flesh while small blue fins that only lived near the coast have red flesh. Thus, there isn't a definitive criterion to determine the nature and habits of the fish by the flesh color.

 

 

Salmon are famous for their long migratory patterns and red orange color but why is salmon technically a white fish? The flesh of salmon doesn’t appear orange or red because of the high hemoglobin and myoglobin. However, it appears red because usually salmon cannot metabolize Astaxanthin, which is a carotenoid in other words pigment prevalent in the salmon’s main diet krill.

Krill appears orange because of the Astaxanthin and as the salmon prey mostly on krill but they aren’t able to metabolize the pigment, the pigment remains in the salmon flesh making it look red.

 

 

Thus, the flesh of wild salmon itself is not red nor orange, however the pigment (Astaxanthin) included in their krill diet makes them orange or red colored. In other word if wild salmon don't prey on krill that have a high Astaxanthin composition. salmon wouldn't have their distinctive red or orange color but appear white.

 

krill

 

In conclusion, salmon is actually a white fish (as mentioned before don't confuse the categorization criteria, in terms of white fish<-> oily fish, salmon is not a white fish but an oily fish)

Although salmon is a migratory fish and appear red, as the colorants of their krill diet isn't metabolized and remaining in the flesh causes the color this salmon's original flesh color is white.

 

wild chinook salmon caught. Comparsion between the flesh color

 

Wild caught chinook salmon (also named the king salmon) habited in the Pacific have various flesh colors due to genetics. Some chinook salmon have the genetics to metabolize the pigments such as Astaxanthin included in their diet. Such individuals would appear white even though these would have shared the same diet with their group. Thus, wild caught chinook salmon may have various flesh color.[2]

 

 

. There are various types of salmon in the world, however for various reasons, only a few types of salmon are consumed in the market. Most of the salmon consumed worldwide including South Korea is the Atlantic salmon. Norway is one of the largest producers of fish farmed Atlantic salmon So why would the fish farmed salmon appear red or orange? Such fish wouldn’t have a krill-based diet.

 

Atlantic salmon comparsion of the colorant added salmon and not added salmon

 

The color red is crucial in making food appear edible. Many food commercials tend to have a red component included. The importance of redness is way crucial than the common perceives. Thus, for fish farmed salmon, colorants and pigments are added to the diet as well so they could appear red or orange. As salmon import is a crucial industry for Norway, research and quality control in terms of the salmon flesh color is also an important aspect of the industry 

 

fish farmed Atlantic salmon flesh without colorant added

 

Overall, wild salmon appear red due to their astaxanthin high diet while fish farmed salmon have colorants added to their diet to make an appealing edible visual effect. However, salmon is originally ‘WHITE’.

 

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[1] “What Is the Difference between White Fish and Red Fish? - Exhibition.” Shanghai Yangqi Foods Co., Ltd., https://www.sushiseafood.com/info/what-is-the-difference-between-white-fish-and-58544238.html.

[2] Dfg.webmaster@alaska.gov. “What Makes King Salmon Flesh Red or White?, Alaska Department of Fish and Game.” What Makes King Salmon Flesh Red or White?, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=738.