Celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern is pushing back against concerns about farmed salmon after new research found the popular fish may contain substantially less heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids than previously believed.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-led study, recently published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, found that farmed Atlantic salmon contained 63.8% less eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and 47.5% less docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) — two important omega-3 fatty acids — compared with older federal nutritional data.
Researchers suggested the differences could be linked to changes in fish feed, as salmon farms increasingly substitute plant-based oils for marine fish oils.
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But Zimmern, a James Beard Award-winning chef and co-author of “The Blue Food Cookbook,” cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions about farmed seafood from the findings.
“What we should be calling for is not to eliminate farmed seafood. How do we make it better?” Zimmern told Fox News Digital.
The research examined eight farmed Atlantic salmon fillets purchased from retailers in the mid-Atlantic region, raising questions about how representative the findings are of the broader industry.
Zimmern questioned whether the results adequately reflected differences among salmon producers worldwide.
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The celebrity chef, who said he has personally visited salmon farms in Chile, said farming practices can vary considerably.
“There are some really good ones and [there are some] that are not so good,” he said.
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Zimmern, who has long advocated for Americans to eat more responsibly sourced seafood, argued that improving aquaculture is preferable to discouraging consumers from eating farmed fish altogether.
“The question is what’s going to replace it? We have a very reactionary society. Right? You can’t take away millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, pounds of food globally and not replace it with something else,” he said.
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Asked about the limited sample size, a USDA spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the salmon was selected to update existing nutritional information.
“The number of samples was based on standard methods used to evaluate whether nutrient levels have changed meaningfully since earlier analyses,” the spokesperson said.
The USDA also emphasized that the findings should not discourage consumers from eating farmed salmon.
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“The study found that farmed Atlantic salmon remains a nutritious source of omega-3 fatty acids and other key nutrients,” the spokesperson said.
Zimmern previously told Fox News Digital that Americans should pay closer attention to where their seafood comes from and how it is produced, rather than simply choosing between wild-caught and farm-raised varieties.
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He reiterated that position in his latest interview, arguing that seafood often faces scrutiny that consumers don’t apply equally to other animal proteins.
“Seafood has to prove itself innocent all the time, because everybody assumes it’s just guilty, guilty, guilty,” Zimmern said.