Sue, the color probably comes from the salmon, which is farm raised. I understand that they are not really salmon but some other fish tht is fed a color enhancing food to make the flesh pink and similar in flavor to wild salmons.

I do not worry too much about it, as we feed a similar food to our koi and dogs. Very high in beta carotene, generally carrot, to make the scale marking and some flesh the orange/pink tones. Some show dogs are also fed that type of food to enhance the red in their coats, like Setters, Airedales and Goldens. In the end it is still natural, just artificially colored, like an easter egg. All food grade and safe.

And keep in mind that a great old trick of banquet halls is to pour beet juice of red meat, particulrly rib roast cuts to make it look rare and "fresh". It stains well and fools people.

I really believe farm raised salmon are really salmon with natural things added to make the salmon pinker.
For some reason we think salmon should be bright pink, and shrimp should be pink and strawberries red and and the skins of oranges bright orange.
Coho salmon is not the same bright red color as king salmon....but consumers expect salmon to be red.
Blame it on people who don't recognize those foods that don't appear in the TV ads as perfect.

A friend was chatting with the guy in the meat department at Wal-Mart about the "stuff" injected into the meat because she's super sensitive or allergic to many things. He handed her a sheet filled with all the add-ins to meat. Unbelievable....

Another friend is allergic to Red Dye # something-er-other and he has to check EVERY list of ingredients because it seems to be in more foods than not.

-Grainlady

Another reason to buy from your local farmers like Annie, who raise quality meats humanely.

I have heard from multiple sources that farm raised fish is not safe to eat due to the carp (pardon the pun) they feed them, and the concentration of chemicals in the water they live in. Not only that, but nutritionally speaking, farm raised salmon and other fish are fed diets similar to the diets fed cattle in feed lots, causing their cholesterol content to rise. That last detail I read in Michael Pollen's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. So, if eating fish, go for the wild caught fish if at all possible.

Sally

By all means try to patronize more natural sources when possible.

Some items which are added for cosmetic appeal aren't that bad. I seem to remember that Purdue chickens are fed marigold petals to make the skin more golden. I would prefer that Perdue would try letting the little critters out of the cages and chase bugs and worms and make the chicken flesh taste better, irrespective of what the skin looked like.

The food industry will do whatever it can to make the product visually appealing. I used to live in apple country in Virginia; one of the sprays the farmers used was to enhance the little bumps on the bottom of a Delicious apple. That's all it did, but apparently an apple with well developed bulges sold better than one without those well developed bulges. (Jessy, don't even go there.)

Farm raised salmon are fed a diet that normally produces a rather grayish color to the flesh. To give them the reddish color people associate with salmon, a feed additive is necessary. They are fed fairly high levels of antibiotics (disease in overcrowded conditions is a constant factor in fish farming). In addition, they have VERY LOW levels of Omega-3 oils.

The additives do nothing to enhance the flavor of the fish. I personally find the texture of farm-raised salmon to be much softer and more watery than wild salmon. The latter is, however, much more expensive.

Here is an excerpt from a website concerned about fish farming of salmon. A link is included to the entire article for those who are interested:

"Artificial Color:
Farmers use a vendorÂs chart to choose the color for their salmon. Colorants, added to the food, can account for up to one-third of total feed costs.
Industrial salmon farms use artificial color to make farmed fish  whose flesh is typically greyish white  appear a more appetizing "salmon" pink. Market research found that consumers "buy with their eyes" and put a premium on color. Since 1982, the use of artificial coloring in farmed salmon has more than tripled. One of the most commonly used colorants, Canthaxanthin, has been linked to human eye defects and retinal damage.

In 2003, the European Commission ordered salmon farmers to sharply reduce the use of Canthaxanthin, and most countries, including the U.S., require labels to identify farmed and colored salmon as such. Yet, fish are occasionally sold without labels: Safeway, Kroger, and Alberstons were sued in 2003 for failing to identify artificially colored, factory raised salmon."

Here is a link that might be useful: Coloring and chemicals in farmed salmon

There is a lot of misinformation, media alarmism, bias, hidden agendas (and not-so-hidden) and junk science in many of the articles relating to this issue (and most other hot-button issues unfortunately - hard to determine the facts because so much smoke is being blown).

I am keeping an open mind, and I do eat farmed seafoods.