Current status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 September 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what procedures are in place to alert the public to the potential dangers associated with consuming salmon or trout that have escaped from fish farms, and what plans it has to update the section on the website, aquaculture.scotland.gov.uk, which provides information about such escapes, regarding the safety of eating such fish, including whether they have been subject to pesticide or other chemical or pharmaceutical treatments.
The risk to the public of consuming treated escaped farmed salmon is negligible although caution should always be applied when there is any uncertainty around the provenance.
Guidance on the handling of any farmed caught salmon by anglers is available at http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/Salmon-Trout-Coarse/fishreform/licence/