WHY THE SALMON IS PINK

Evening Star, Issue 18070, 11 September 1922, Page 7

WHY THE SALMON IS PINK

Men of science were long puzzled to know why the various salmon and trout have red or pink flesh. Now they believe that the color comes from the food they eat (observes the ‘Youth’s Companion ’). All of the salmon family are particularly fond of shellfish; and trout eagerly feed 1 on fresh-water shrimp. It is well known that when lobsters, prawns, and shrimp are cooked the flesh turns pink; similarly" the process of digestion turns shellfish nink. When a shrimp is found in the stomach of a salmon or a trout the gastric juices of the fish have turned it almost as red _or pink as if it had been boiled. Therefore, even if we had no definite proof, wo might believe that the color of the flesh of salmon and trout results from the considerable quantities of various small shellfish that the fishes eat. But there is definite proof. Several years ago Professor Leger, of the Pisciculture! Laboratory at Grenoble, Franco, made experiments with trout to determine what gave their flesh its color. Ho separated the eggs from one trout into two lots and hatched them in different troughs. He fed one lot of young fish exclusively on freshwater shrimps; to the other Jot he gave no shrimps whatever. At the end of tho second • year the trout that bad fed on shrimps had salmon-colored flesh, but the flesh of the other trout was perfectly white. But someone may ask, Why is the flesh of shellfish red or pink? That is a hard question to answer. Perhaps the color comes from the food tho shellfish eat. Not long ago pheraists of the Department of Agriculture at Washington examined some pink oysters that 'had been found in Long Island Sound, and declared that they were delicious. The chemists suggested that possibly the bright hue of the flesh was caused by food that contained wild yeast bacilli-and other similar microorganisms.