Aldi’s affordable prices make it many people’s number one choice for grocery items that are more expensive at other stores, such as meat and fish. While one of the myths you need to unlearn about Aldi meats is that low prices don’t instantly mean poor quality, another myth has to do with the sustainability of its salmon. Nobody could blame you for assuming that Aldi’s salmon is sustainable; after all, it used to be marketed as such, and most consumers don’t really question those claims because why would we? However, an interesting lawsuit filed in 2021 revealed the disappointing reality of how Aldi’s farmed salmon is actually raised.
There is indeed a difference between wild and farmed salmon, but the sustainability issue doesn’t come from the way salmon is sourced. In Aldi’s case, it comes from the conditions in which the farmed fish live. The store sources its salmon from Chilean fish farms that crowd together a massive number of animals inside net pens. The living conditions are poor and unsanitary, causing many of the fish to develop diseases. Antibiotics and chemicals are then used to mitigate that. It’s a vicious cycle that has a direct impact on the environment because the waste, diseases, and chemicals from those pens inevitably leak into the surrounding ocean. In fact, this type of farming practice is widely banned along the West Coast in the United States.
Following the lawsuit, Aldi made a small change
The lawsuit was originally brought on by GMO/Toxin Free USA, a nonprofit that looked into Aldi’s salmon and found it unsustainable. The organization took issue with a particular slogan on the salmon’s packaging: “Simple. Sustainable. Seafood.” Aldi pushed back on the lawsuit and tried to get it dismissed, claiming that its advertising was not misleading because the sustainability statement was directly related to the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) seal on the packaging. BAP certification generally indicates responsibly farmed fish, including in the environmental context, but GMO/Toxic Free USA felt this independent certification does not replace the Federal Trade Commission’s framing of the word sustainable, which indicates something has zero negative consequences for the environment.
The lawsuit was resolved through mediation in 2024, when Aldi agreed to remove the sustainable claim from the salmon’s packaging. The updated salmon products, therefore, don’t include the “Simple. Sustainable. Seafood.” slogan anymore. The store has also promised to move some of its farmed salmon to facilities with better conditions. Aldi still claims on its website that the seafood on its shelves is sustainable, saying it’s sourced from farms with “minimal impacts” on the environment. If you don’t want to take Aldi’s word for it, here are 12 tips and tricks for shopping for quality salmon.
