Rick Stein’s smoked salmon scam – a fishy case of deceptive advertising & misleading marketing?

 

 

Rick Stein's web-site promotes smoked salmon implying that it is wild salmon caught "on the edge of the royal forest of dean between two of England's most celebrated salmon rivers":

 

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Scottish Salmon Watch today (25 March 2021) wrote to Rick Stein asking him if the salmon he sources is from disease-ridden salmon farms (in Scotland, the Faroes, Ireland, Tasmania or wherever):

 

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Rick Stein certainly wouldn't be the first person caught misleading shoppers on salmon. 

 

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Scottish Salmon Watch seriously doubts that Rick Stein is sourcing wild salmon from the River Wye, River Severn or other English rivers.  Seafood Source reported in 2015:

 

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The Times reported in 2019:

 

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The Hereford Times reported in 2017:

 

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The Severn & Wye smokery certainly uses farmed salmon from Ireland.

 

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Severn & Wye's web-site cites wild salmon and rivers but seems coy on the provence of their salmon:

 

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You have to delve deeper on their web-site to find specific reference to farmed salmon from Ireland and the Faroe Islands.

 

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The PDF takes you to a flyer advertising "the finest farmed salmon":

 

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Is Rick Stein using Faroese farmed salmon in his signature smoked salmon?

 

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Varlaks is owned by Dutch seafood giant Visscher Seafood who is the leading shareholder in 'Organic' Sea Harvest (a Soil Association-certified salmon farmer on the Isle of Skye who reported mass mortalities, infectious disease problems and the use of the lobster-killing pesticide Deltamethrin in 2020):

 

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So does Rick Stein's smoked salmon range of products use wild or farmed salmon?  Shoppers on his web-site are getting the impression (Scottish Salmon Watch believes it is a false impression and awaits Rick Stein's reply with baited breath) that the salmon is caught in the River Severn or River Wye rather than farmed in disease-ridden salmon farms.

 

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Is Rick Stein's salmon gravadlax really caught in the River Severn or River Wye or is it farmed in the Faroes, Ireland, Scotland or even in Tasmania?

 

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It seems that Rick Stein loves farmed salmon even though he doesn't advertise the fact that he often cooks with farmed salmon from Tasmania on his web-site or mentions where he sources his Rick Stein smoked salmon from.  In his lockdown video in May 2020 Rick Stein can be seen plugging Tasmanian farmed salmon – does he source his Rick Stein smoked salmon from Tasmania, the Faroes or Scotland rather than from "two of England's most celebrated salmon rivers" (as strongly suggested on his web-site)?

 

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Rick Stein has long-promoted Loch Duart farmed salmon from Scotland despite their appalling environmental record and embarrassing ruling from the Advertising Standards Authority in 2019 forcing Loch Duart to ditch their 'sustainable salmon' claim:

 

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In 2015, Rick Stein toured a salmon farm operated by Huon Aquaculture in Tasmania:

 

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Huon Aquaculture has an appalling environmental track record including mass escapes and poor rating on sustainability and welfare.

 

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Back in 1994, however, it was a different story with Rick Stein lambasting farmed salmon in an interview with award-winning food journalist Joanna Blythman published in The Independent.

 

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So will Rick Stein come clean and tell his customers where his smoked salmon comes from?  Is it the "worst stuff" sourced from factory salmon farms or it is "sweet" and "fresh" wild salmon?

 

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As consumers around the globe know full well, there is a world of difference between farmed and wild salmon.    Don't take my word for it – please listen to ocean advocate Katie Tunn on why you should boycott farmed salmon.

 

 

 

And after watching Seaspiracy on Netflix last night, there is a strong argument against eating both wild and farmed fish!

 

 

 

 

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