The facts about Tassal Seafood


There are no growth hormones or antibiotics in the Tassie salmon you eat. Like humans, sometimes salmon need antibiotics. Our vets are the only ones who can prescribe antibiotics. Due to the strict withholding period prior to harvest, any antibiotic has completely faded from the fish.

Antibiotic use is audited and reported to government and veterinary medications are registered and monitored federally.


All salmon, whether they are wild or farmed, get their signature flesh colour from their diet, from the presence of an antioxidant called astaxanthin, which is vital for healthy muscle growth and egg production. Astaxanthin is safe for both salmon and humans; you can buy it from your pharmacy or health food store. Wild salmon get their astaxanthin from eating krill, farmed salmon get their astaxanthin as part of a nutritionally balanced diet.


All animal feed in Australia is rigorously controlled by the federal government. Salmon is not fed unprocessed poultry products. Our feed includes poultry by- products that are ground down into a protein flour. Over the past 35 years, the industry has actively worked to increase the level of plant and vegetable contained in a balanced salmon diet and reduce wildfish inputs.

 


Most animal feed, as well as a lot of human food, contains preservatives. These preservatives are approved by the Federal Government and are safe. Some salmon feed contains ethoxyquin. However, you would need to eat more than 4 kilos of salmon every day to reach the World Health Organisation daily limit for a preservative like ethoxyquin.

 


Together, our industry supports 12,000 Tasmanian jobs. We are farmers. The communities in which we operate form our heartland and our people are our heartbeat. One in 20 Tasmanians in the workforce works either directly or indirectly in the salmon industry, making this one of Tasmania’s biggest employers and supporters of regional communities.

 


There are over 40 laws currently in place to regulate Tassie’s salmon industry. These regulations, and our reporting requirements, are significantly stricter than any other industry in this State. We know this is needed to protect our freshwater and marine waterways to ensure our industry is here for generations to come. The Tasmanian government regulations are touted as the most stringent in the global salmon industry, which we can all be proud of.


By eating Tassie salmon, you’re eating one of the healthiest and most efficient foods on the planet and supporting your local community at the same time. Tassie salmon also has a low carbon footprint compared to some other sources of protein. In fact, it takes only 0.7kg of wild fish to get 1kg of growth of salmon, meaning we are a net protein producer.

 


We continue to work hard to do better, to be transparent and make decisions based on facts and science, to support the community and to look after our environment.

 

 

 

The simple fact is we are proud of our industry, and the thousands of people who work with us every day, and you can be too.