Supermarket salmon eats chickenmeal – and consumers are left in the dark

Various salmon fillets and smoked salmon products from Dutch supermarkets Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Aldi, Dirk, and Spar come from the factories of a salmon farm that feeds all its salmon chicken. This partly concerns private label products. This is revealed by research from Foodrise.

Foodrise found production codes referring to Lerøy Seafood on private label salmon packaging at Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Aldi, Dirk, and Spar. In a written response to Foodrise, Lerøy states that chickenmeal “has a nutritional profile that fits well as a feed ingredient,” that it constitutes only “a small share of the total feed,” and that it concerns chicken by-products produced for human consumption. The company calls its use “a responsible choice from both a nutritional and sustainability perspective.”

The consumer is not informed about this unnatural food chain. There is no labeling requirement for fish feed. In response to questions from Foodrise, the supermarkets indicate that they will not change their purchasing or labeling policies.

Producers are switching to chicken because the price of traditional fishmeal is becoming increasingly expensive due to overfishing and climate change. In Peru, the anchoveta catch has virtually disappeared this year due to a super El Niño. In Norway, the blue whiting is so overfished that feed manufacturers are removing it from their feed. Other major salmon farming producers are expected to follow Lerøy’s lead and feed chicken to salmon as well.

“Feeding chicken to salmon is unnatural and symbolizes the state of the farmed fish sector. Salmon farming has reached its ecological limits: for decades, millions of tons of wild fish were sucked from the oceans to feed farmed salmon; now, the switch is being made to chickenmeal. Anyone buying salmon in the supermarket has no idea that the fish has eaten chicken. That is why the composition and origin of fish feed must be mandatory on the packaging,” says Sybren Kooistra of Foodrise.

Over two percent of the Dutch population eats no meat, but does eat fish. Many of these pescetarians run the risk of unintentionally and unknowingly increasing meat consumption. In response to this, Kooistra says: “Farmed fish has a sustainable image. But to feed one farmed salmon, hundreds of fish are killed. The fact that chickens now have to be slaughtered for this as well raises the question of how viable and sustainable the farmed fish sector actually is.”

We want the composition and origin of fish feed to be mandatorily stated on the packaging. That way, at least you’ll know if there’s chicken in your salmon.