Grocers sued over artificial color in farmed salmon

When Lori Thomas of Seattle discovered the salmon that she bought at Albertsons had been raised on feed that artificially kept its flesh pink, she was incensed.

"There's no way I would have spent my money buying salmon that was colored with a chemical additive to give it the red or orange or pink color," said Thomas, who was still upset yesterday with not being told how the salmon had been raised. "If I had been told about the fake color I would have never bought this stuff."

Thomas, a fund-raiser for a non-profit organization, is one of eight consumers who've taken three giant supermarket chains to court for not telling them and others how some of their salmon is raised.

Their case was filed yesterday in King County Superior Court and charges Albertsons, Safeway and the Kroger Co. with deception, unfair business practices, breach of warranty and negligent misrepresentation in the sale of farm-raised salmon that were fed artificial chemicals as nutrients but not labeled this way. Kroger owns two supermarket chains, QFC and Fred Meyer.

The case isn't expected to go to trial for 18 months, but it is believed to be unprecedented. The suit, if successful, could result in millions of dollars in damages being paid in a battle over two versions of Northwest salmon -- a regional icon and a popular seafood nationwide.

"When you fail to label (products) the consumer doesn't have an opportunity to consider the controversy over the safety of these chemicals," said Knoll Lowney, the Seattle attorney representing the consumers. "It's unfair, it's deceptive and it's against the law."

Representatives for Kroger, Albertsons and Safeway all said they had not seen the lawsuits and could not comment on the specifics.

"Our goal is to always provide the highest quality and freshest products," said Shane McEntarffer, a spokesman for Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons.

"We want to assure our customers that we buy our salmon from well-regarded, reputable suppliers who are known for their high quality standards and who guarantee that they comply with all federal, state and local laws," said Cherie Myers, a spokeswoman in the Seattle office of Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway. "The seafood product we sell in our stores is safe and wholesome."

And Cincinnati-based Kroger spokesman Gary Rhodes said, "We believe that the farm-raised salmon sold in our stores is nutritious and wholesome and fully complies with all federal labeling guidelines."

One industry official said the two chemicals that turn salmon's flesh pink -- canthaxanthin and astaxanthin -- are found in nature, as well, and aren't harmful in farm-raised fish.

"These are the same molecules that make wild salmon pink," said Kevin Bright, general manager of farms for Cypress Island Inc., one of the biggest farmed-salmon producers on the West Coast.

Fish farmers, the suit notes, artificially color their products by including the two chemicals in the food that the fish eat. The practice is done, the suit says, to produce more readily marketable fish flesh, because many consumers won't buy the fish if they don't have that traditional color.

Farmed fish, the suit says, would have gray flesh were it not for the artificial additives, because they don't get to eat other creatures like shrimp and krill containing the chemicals that give salmon their pinkish hue.

The suit says both federal and state law require that flesh from farm-raised salmon be labeled as such. "Generally, consumers prefer and are willing to pay a higher price for wild salmon as compared to farm-raised salmon," said the complaint filed in court yesterday.

The suit also says there has been controversy over the effects of one of the chemicals, canthaxanthin, because it has been associated with retinal damage in the human eye.

Lowney said the European Union has limited the amounts of the chemical that can be fed to farmed salmon, but added that there is "significant controversy" about its effects.

Lowney said the legal issue wouldn't have arisen had the three retailers revealed the feed's chemical content in their labels.

The lawsuit does not target any fish farms or brokers of farmed salmon. Bright, of Cypress Island, said his company reveals the presence of the two chemicals when it ships fish to its distributor.

The two substances are added not only to salmon to create the pinkish color but also to hen eggs to turn the yolks bright yellow. Canthaxanthin also is used in tanning pills.

Both chemicals are from the same group of natural substances as beta-carotene. Both are antioxidants that give a reddish color to several animals, including lobsters and flamingos. In addition to enhancing salmon color, the chemicals help farm-raised salmon reproduce.

"There are all sorts of color enhancers in the foods we eat. It just makes it more appealing to the consumer," Bright said.

Is the practice deceptive? No, Bright said, because it's the same pigment that occurs naturally and "we label our boxes (of fish) with the color additive and (the markets) as FDA requirements are also supposed to label the fish that way." He estimates that farm-produced fish make up 69 percent of those sold worldwide, important at a time when many fisheries are closed.

Bright says he suspects much of the anti-farmed salmon effort comes from the wild fish advocates, perhaps from the commercial fishing industry, though Lowney says none of those interests are involved in the lawsuit.

Some varieties of wild salmon have gray or even white flesh, depending on what they eat, Bright said. Interviews with grocery workers and consumers confirmed that many buyers prefer the pink-colored fish, whether they realize the source of the color or not.

A worker at a QFC seafood counter, who didn't want his name used, said the store probably wouldn't sell a lot of salmon that wasn't pink or was colorless. He said it would probably make wild salmon prices go up if salmon wasn't colored. "Right now prices are comparable and people don't notice a difference," he said.

A customer, Bonnie Graham, said she would "probably not" buy fish if it were gray instead of pink. "Salmon is supposed to be pink. I don't think gray would be very appetizing," she said. She said she doesn't know whether the color additive is that bad if it's what makes regular salmon pink.

At a nearby Safeway store, customer Tanesha Love wondered aloud whether the gray tinges she's seen in some salmon was actually the natural color. She said she usually cuts it away. She thinks fish should be red, pink or white, and the gray would make it look spoiled. Said Love: "I wouldn't eat gray fish."