How to Avoid Eating GM Salmon

Updated February 2019

GM Atlantic salmon is the world’s first GM food animal. It is only being sold in Canada, but it is not labelled as genetically modified.

Picture taken at the seafood counter at a Farm Boy store in Ottawa, June 2018

If I want to avoid eating GM salmon, what salmon should I buy?

• Buy only wild salmon to avoid buying GM salmon – because GM salmon is only raised in factory farms (aquaculture).
• Buy salmon from the seafood counter at these grocery stores.
• Don’t buy salmon.

If the GM salmon is not labelled, how can I trust my grocery stores’ statement that they are not selling it at their seafood counter?

All of Canada’s major grocery chains have told CBAN that they have no plans to sell the GM salmon: Costco, Federated Co-operatives Ltd, IGA (Owned by Sobeys), Loblaw, Longo’s, Metro, Overwaitea Food Groups, Sobeys, Walmart Canada; and Metro, Sobeys, Wal-Mart and Loblaws also confirmed that they did not sell the GM salmon last year.

Grocery stores can ask their suppliers to only sell them non-GM salmon. Grocery stores and other food companies have a lot of power to source non-GM salmon and other non-GM products. They have access to the people who could buy salmon directly from the GM fish company.

GM salmon packaged in Panama for shipping to Canada. Screenshot from video about AquaBounty’s Panama facility.

Also, at the moment, Panama is the only country where the GM salmon is being produced. This makes it even easier to grocery stores and other companies to ensure they are not buying GM salmon: Companies can avoid buying salmon from Panama, and Canada actually buys very little salmon from Panama.

The current statements from grocery stores mostly apply to seafood counters: click here to see the exact statements.You can also check here to see which companies own your local store and find contact information.

Which companies say they are not selling GM salmon?

Click here for the list of grocery stores in Canada that say they have no plans to sell the GM salmon. Also, the foodservice company Sodexo asks for non-GM animals only.

Take Action

1. Write to the head office of your grocery store to confirm that they are not selling GM salmon.
2. Write to the head office of you favourite sushi chain or favourite restaurant to ask them not to sell the GM salmon

Contact us to let us know what they tell you.

More Details

• All genetically modified (GM) salmon is farmed salmon, and all Atlantic salmon is farmed salmon. There is no wild Atlantic salmon fishery because Atlantic salmon is an endangered species.
• The GM salmon is produced (on land) at a pilot plant run by AquaBounty in Panama.
• About 9 tonnes of GM salmon was sold in Canada since June 2017 – it was shipped to Quebec and Ontario.
• In September 2018, AquaBounty’s CEO told investors that a Canadian buyer is using the GM salmon for a “high-end sashimi line” (a type of sushi).
• Most of the GM fish was sold to foodservice companies (like restaurants and catering companies) and some to retail.
• CBAN has secured statements from all the major grocery stores saying that they have no plans to sell it. These statements mostly refer to seafood counters and may not cover all salmon products in stores.
• A June 5, 2018 MacLean’s article discovered the companies that shipped the GM salmon into Quebec: wholesalers Montreal Fish Co. and Sea Delight Canada

Click here for more details and background on the GM salmon.