Pink trout flesh

[NRD]

Now that the June 15 threshold for delayed harvest areas has passed, I kept 3 rainbows this morning. Last year this stream water temp was 80 F by first week in July, so I didn't feel a bit guilty about keeping these fish, until I cleaned them. 2 of the 3 were as pink as salmon. I'm told this means they were carry overs. Is this true?

 

[redietz]

2 of the 3 were as pink as salmon. I'm told this means they were carry overs. Is this true?

Not necessarily. It does mean they had a crustacean rich diet.

 

[NRD]

Interesting, There are A LOT of crayfish in this section of this stream.

 

[Swattie87]

Once they’ve eaten a few months of an in-stream diet the stockers lean out, firm up, and start to develop a more natural hue to their flesh. And taste a lot better.

I kept a few around opening day, and they were just meh. Starting Memorial Day though, any stockie I find is a small wild Trout stream gets harvested, where legal to do so.

 

[Troutmeister]

I kept a couple rainbows early this spring that came from a co-op hatchery and they had really orange flesh, just like a salmon, so I'd say not necessarily holdovers but more likely from their diet.

 

[Millsertime]

So early stocking fillets are white (ish) from raceway pellet feeding?

 

[Swattie87]

So early stocking fillets are white (ish) from raceway pellet feeding?

My experience is yes. And the flesh is somewhat mushy, even grainy at times. Some are better than others. They all taste better after being in the stream a few months though.

 

[Bamboozle]

Where do supermarket trout come from and what do they eat because I couldn't help but notice the pink flesh on some rainbow trout I saw in the fresh seafood case at Wegman's yesterday...

 

[troutbert]

Supplementation with carotenoid pigments is now common in aquaculture to get deep colored flesh, and bright pigmentation on the skin. (And also in the poultry business to get deep-colored yolks and chicken flesh.)

If eating natural diets, they get these carotenoids naturally, from insects and crustaceans. But the commercial feeds typically are lacking, resulting in pale flesh and skin. Some small hatcheries get their water from a diversion from a stream, so the trout get some insects to eat. And some small raceways have grasses alongside and the trout get some terrestrial insects to eat. Which helps their color. But in large hatcheries, the trout are getting very little of the carotenoids.

So, companies synthesize these compounds, and sell them as supplements.

In aquaculture, probably the biggest market is to make farm raised salmon a marketable color. But it is also being used in trout hatcheries also.

You can think of it as "Paint the Fish by Numbers."

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[Dave_W]

There's a coop hatchery that stocks locally. They have upgraded their fish feed and the rainbows they have stocked this year are especially colorful. I kept a couple and they had orange flesh. These were fish that had just been put in the stream.

 

[tomgamber]

Wild cutties at altitude were very pink.

 

[redietz]

There's a coop hatchery that stocks locally. They have upgraded their fish feed and the rainbows they have stocked this year are especially colorful. I kept a couple and they had orange flesh. These were fish that had just been put in the stream.

As noted above, because of the need to make farmed salmon look like wild caught, coloring agents have become more common in fish chow. (Salmon flesh is actually white -- a diet of almost exclusively shrimp while at sea is why we think it's pink.)

 

[pcray1231]

I don't know if they do it with fish. But in mass produced red meat, such as beef, they actually color the meat after butchering to make it look better in the supermarket. I believe they inject it with carbon monoxide. Consumers equate "pink" with "fresh", which is true to a point as freshly cut meat is indeed pink and unspoiled. But meat can brown without spoiling, and it can spoil without browning, those two things are separate processes! Still, for consumer confidence, the carbon monoxide treatment keeps meat LOOKING pink and fresh in the supermarket, lol.

It wouldn't shock me at all if they applied dye's to fish to make it look better.

 

[redietz]

It wouldn't shock me at all if they applied dye's to fish to make it look better.

At least with salmon, they do it strictly by diet.

 

[tomgamber]

I don't know if they do it with fish. But in mass produced red meat, such as beef, they actually color the meat after butchering to make it look better in the supermarket. I believe they inject it with carbon monoxide. Consumers equate "pink" with "fresh", which is true to a point as freshly cut meat is indeed pink and unspoiled. But meat can brown without spoiling, and it can spoil without browning, those two things are separate processes! Still, for consumer confidence, the carbon monoxide treatment keeps meat LOOKING pink and fresh in the supermarket, lol.

It wouldn't shock me at all if they applied dye's to fish to make it look better.

No need to inject. You only need to have it in an enclosed area with control over the O2 supply. We have two different grocers in our area and you can tell which one of their walk-ins you don't want to get stuck inside. 🥶

 

[FarmerDave]

Wild cutties at altitude were very pink.

For a second there I thought you said cuties. Goes without saying.

 

[DomR]

They actually bleach factory chicken to turn it white, the meat takes on a blueish hue from all the antibiotics (or so goes the story I was given).