SALMON producer Loch Duart has added a new ingredient to the diet of its farmed fish as part of its bid to replicate, as far as possible, the diet of wild salmon – and in so doing achieve a similar flesh colour.

The new addition, Panaferd, supplied by feed company EWOS, is made from drying a natural organism that contains the pigments used by salmon. This results in a powder which contains protein, fat and a number of pigments that are encountered in nature by wild salmon.

Nick Joy, managing director of Loch Duart Ltd, which produces 5,400 tonnes of salmon a year, said: “We believe that this is the closest thing that we can find to what a salmon would naturally encounter in the wild and we herald this as an important step forward. We have always maximised the inclusion of natural ingredients from which the natural coloration could be derived.”

The flesh colour of wild salmon, derived from eating a wide range of crustaceans and small fish, is created by the range of different pigments contained in those organisms. The colour varies significantly according to diet but is generally a subtle hue – combining tones of pink, orange, brown and red.

Mr Joy added: “This is the culmination of a huge endeavour which has often resembled a roller-coaster ride. Our search for a truly natural ingredient for our diets, containing a wide range of pigments that a wild salmon would normally encounter, has taken 10 years.

“A number of times we have thought that we were on the edge of success and been thwarted by supply or commercial issues.  As a farmer, I’m proud that we rear well-nourished salmon which look and taste great.  To be able to say that all the colour in our salmon is derived from naturally occurring organisms is the culmination of years of hard work.”

Loch Duart salmon is served by name on the menus of Rick Stein and Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants and many other chefs and by sushi restaurant chains Moshi Moshi and Feng Sushi.