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Is synthetic astaxanthin (salmon "dye") safe?

Seasoned Advice Asked on March 25, 2021

TL;DR Is synthetic astaxanthin safe for humans to consume?

Background

Synthetic astaxanthin is available as a supplement, and is also commonly consumed by humans in the form of farmed salmon.

Wild salmon eat a lot of shrimp-like krill, which contains lots of astaxanthin, which is what gives salmon it’s red/pink flesh. In farmed salmon, they’re not fed the same diet, so they don’t get the same colour (they’d be grey or off-white). So farms feed them synthetic astaxanthin to give their flesh a red/pink colour.

This says that humans that eat the farmed salmon end up consuming the synthetic astaxanthin via the salmon’s flesh.

I found the following:

… one company has announced it will bring a synthetic astaxanthin supplement to market for human use. Their argument for its legality is that it’s already approved as a color additive in food (salmon). This may be a legal loophole that could potentially bring this far inferior supplement onto health food store shelves sometime in the future. The question that remains to be answered is whether or not synthetic astaxanthin is safe for direct human consumption.

Synthetic astaxanthin is significantly inferior to algal-based astaxanthin

Note that being ‘inferior’ doesn’t imply that it’s unsafe.

Question

Is human consumption of synthetic astaxanthin (via capsule, salmon, or any other means) safe?

2 Answers

Yes, the FDA has determined that astaxanthin is "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS), at 0.15 mg/serving. This doesn't indicate whether there are any health considerations associated with it (that's not on topic for this site), but it's not poisonous.

Answered by Sneftel on March 25, 2021

According to a meta-study from 2014, there are no negative health effects associated with consumption of astaxanthin, even in doses more than 100X greater than what is found in salmon. This is true whether the astaxanthin come from krill or is grown from yeast for farmed salmon:

Astaxanthin is safe, with no side effects when it is consumed with food. It is lipid soluble, accumulates in animal tissues after feeding of astaxanthin to rats and no toxic effects were found [15,17,133] ... Supratherapeutic concentrations of astaxanthin had no adverse effects on platelet, coagulation and fibrinolytic function [139]. Research has so far reported no significant side effects of astaxanthin consumption in animals and humans. These results support the safety of astaxanthin for future clinical studies.

Additionally, yeast-grown astaxanthin is currently being researched as a dietary supplement because of beneficial effects on the heart, eyes, and tissues, and may contribute to beneficial weight loss.

So, to sum up: it's not bad for you, and is probably even good for you.

Answered by FuzzyChef on March 25, 2021

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