James,

Fred Meyer does not sell Any “Wild” steelhead. All of our Steelhead is 100% Farm Raised and Sustainably harvested from Local NW Fishery. We don’t sell any of the item you list below. Which would be a Wild Steelhead. FYI on more points attached on our product. We also clearly mark in our Ads and our In-store Signing that are product is “Farm Raised”. Please feel free to call or write me directly with any questions you have on this one and thanks for your time and your patronage.



David Sanz

Fred Meyer Service Meat and Seafood Category Manager

1-503-797-7629

David.Sanz@FredMeyer.com

Can anyone tell me why I am getting conflicting stories on this one? Fred Meyers was on the list of Key City Fish Whateverinthefuck. Well So I sent them the letter, being super distraught fred meyers was on the bad guy list. The above message is what they sent me along with this flyer. Listed Below.\\\





Fresh from the frigid waters of the mighty Columbia

River, our Pacific Northwest Steelhead are farm raised

in a remote part of Washington’s wild Okanagan

Highlands. With consistent sizing and portion

control, we can deliver a product fit for any meal!

Delivered Fresh & Healthy

The fresher the fish, the better the quality and nutritional value. Our Steelhead

ship within hours of leaving the water is rich in natural nutrients and loaded with

Omega-3 & Omega 6 fatty acids – a key selling point to the health-conscious

customers at your tables. Additionally, our Pacific Northwest Steelhead is free of

any and all hormones, pesticides, herbicides or growth promoting antibiotics. Our

fish feed is made up of natural ingredients and use phaffia yeast (an anti-oxidant

commonly found in health stores) as a natural source of pigmentation.

Extended Product Life

Our Pacific Northwest Steelhead is the freshest on the market, now more so than

ever before. Our unique handling and processing techniques retain product

quality and reduces waste, thereby extending product usage for several days.

Reduced Carbon Footprint

Your customers want to reduce impacts on the environment wherever possible.

Our Pacific Northwest Steelhead are born & bred in the USA. Local and

American-owned & operated rather than imported, we avoid the carbon footprint

issues associated with farmed Atlantic salmon flown into the US from

international locations.

Sustainability

Pacific Seafood employs a pathogen free hatchery with strict bio-security,

consistently monitoring water and sediment quality to ensure healthy stocks and

a steady supply at costs less than comparable fish.

Sounds okay to me.

Those are rufus woods triploids...not steelhead.

I was reading in a recent post the list of companies that sell Key City Fish, and Freddies was on that list. So I wrote them a message and this is what I got back. Apparentlly that infoprmation had some bad spots.

Within the last month or two I noticed fish on ice in the display at our local Fred Meyer with a label describing them as steelhead. I don't recall if they used the word "wild" but I am sure they did not describe them as farm raised.

Given the coloration and piggy shape the explanation of Rufus Woods triploids seems plausible. Also why I did not get too excited by the labeling as it was obvious they were not river caught fish.

Not to say that Fred Meyer hasn't sold wild fish - just that what I saw seems consistent with their feedback.

i got the same response from freddy's. i hope what they say is true.

If that is true then I am going to buy me some Fred Meyer "steelhead" there isn't much better table quality fish than a big net-pen raised steelhead from the Columbia. The few big ones (5-7 lbs) I retained last season reminded me of Kokanee.

If that is true they should not market them trout, not as steelhead.

Steelhead are free range fishes, migrating to and from the estuary and ocean to feed.

Those are indeed triploids from steelhead stock raised on Rufus Woods and marketed as being way better and fancier than they are. They are fed the typical trout chow and are given supplements to dye red what would ordinarily be cadaverous flesh like hatchery-stocked lake rainbows.

And the Columbia aint all that clean. Anadromous fish live most of their lives at sea, but those turds with fins marinate in it for their entire lives, which I suspect are hurried along by growth hormones along with the sterilization process.

To each their own as long as they aren't hurting the fishery and we're not contributing by buying a harmful product, I guess, but I think calling them steelhead is BS, too.

I think they might have originally been a Donaldson trout/steelhead hybrid.

It "sounds" like a problem. But I think that having the definition wrong for what steelhead is, means that there won't be as much pressure on the "real" steelhead. Let the consumers think they are buying steelhead, and let Freddys think they are selling steelhead. Then they won't have a need to sale "real" ones.

I trust that he is describing what Fred's sells and is accurate.
He would not come on this board and lie, as the
Fred Meyer Service Meat and Seafood Category Manager he would not be in a good position as the truth would always come out.

Yes, and it's Fred Meyer....not Fred Meyers.

Just like it's Boeing....not Boeings. LOL

I disagree.

Let the public know these are pen raised trout. Not Quinault or whatever commercially gillneted steelhead.

assuming that the public knows that they shouldn't buy those fish, than yes they should properly label them. But I have no reason to believe that the majority of the general public will not buy steelhead becuase they believe the fish are from the one of the Q's fisheries. They should know better, but they don't. If the consumer can't tell the difference, than it could be used as an opportunity to push the bad fish out of the market without the consumers complaining.

The Freds where we shop in East Brem has the steelhead noted as farm raised each time I've checked.

I know this decision is about trust.
Fred Meyer corporate management does not pass the test IMHO.