The words salmon, 三文鱼, sashimi and raw fish appear nowhere on this site. That is a strange blank twice over: China farms salmonids at scale, and the Chinese word for salmon was the subject of a genuine public row that ended in a document — which is exactly the kind of thing this site is for.
Start with the fish, then the word, then the label.
The fish comes from a reservoir at 2,600 metres#
Most Chinese-farmed salmonid is not Atlantic salmon. It is 虹鳟 (hóng zūn, rainbow trout), raised in net cages in the Longyangxia reservoir on the upper Yellow River in Qinghai, where the water sits cold all year and the surface is around 2,600 metres above sea level.
The agriculture ministry's site describes the province as 全国最大的鲑鳟鱼网箱养殖基地 — the country's largest net-cage salmonid farming base — reporting output of 13,800 tonnes and a share of 30 per cent of national salmonid production.
That is a shape this site has met before with coffee, with wine and with farmed sturgeon: a product nobody associates with China, produced there in quantity.
Then the word, and the argument about it#
Rainbow trout is a freshwater fish. Atlantic salmon is not. For years Chinese consumers assumed 三文鱼 meant the second, and in 2018 they discovered that a good deal of what was sold under that name was the first.
The industry answered with a document. On 10 August 2018 the 中国水产流通与加工协会 (China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Association) published a standard titled 《生食三文鱼》, Raw-consumption salmon, drafted with more than ten member companies, two of them from Qinghai. It defined 三文鱼 as a commercial term covering salmonid species — and put rainbow trout inside it.
The row that followed was not only about biology. State broadcast coverage at the time noted that the draft went out for public comment on 6 August and closed on 9 August — three days, against the association's own rule of fifteen.
The part that matters: what kind of standard that was#
This is where the subject stops being gossip and becomes checkable, and it is a tier this site has not yet explained.
The wine page sets out what GB and GB/T mean — compulsory and recommended national standards. Underneath those sits a whole ladder, and the 中华人民共和国标准化法 (Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó biāozhǔnhuà fǎ, Standardization Law of the People's Republic of China), revised in 2017 and in force since 1 January 2018, names every rung in Article 2:
标准包括国家标准、行业标准、地方标准和团体标准、企业标准。国家标准分为强制性标准、推荐性标准，行业标准、地方标准是推荐性标准。强制性标准必须执行。
National, industry, local, group and enterprise standards. Only a national standard can be compulsory; industry and local standards are recommended by definition. And Article 18 says exactly what a 团体标准 (tuántǐ biāozhǔn, group standard) is:
国家鼓励学会、协会、商会、联合会、产业技术联盟等社会团体协调相关市场主体共同制定满足市场和创新需要的团体标准，由本团体成员约定采用或者按照本团体的规定供社会自愿采用。
A group standard is made by a learned society, trade association, chamber of commerce or industry alliance, and is adopted by agreement among that body's own members, or offered to everyone else for voluntary adoption.
The label is where the decision landed#
Here is the useful half, and it is the twenty-fifth time this site has found the answer printed on the object itself.
The same 2018 standard requires that 预包装产品的标签应标注原料鱼产地以及种名，如三文鱼(大西洋鲑)、三文鱼(虹鳟)等 — a prepackaged product's label shall state the origin of the raw fish and its species name, in the form salmon (Atlantic salmon), salmon (rainbow trout) and so on.
That parenthesis is the whole subject, printed. A packet in a Chinese supermarket that carries it tells you which fish you are buying; a packet that does not is telling you something too.
Can you eat it raw?#
Write the institution, not the opinion. The Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention addressed this directly on 18 June 2024:
经过正规的养殖、加工并达到我国在现行《食品安全国家标准 动物性水产制品》（GB 10136-2015）中对即食生制动物性水产制品要求的冰鲜三文鱼，感染寄生虫的风险极低。
Chilled salmon that has been properly farmed and processed and that meets the requirements of the current national food safety standard GB 10136-2015 for ready-to-eat raw animal aquatic products carries a very low risk of parasite infection. The same page notes that wild salmon, living in a complex marine environment, unavoidably carries a risk that farming and freezing reduce.
Two things follow, and note what each rests on. The centre's assessment is conditional on the product meeting GB 10136-2015 — a compulsory national standard, the top rung. And the standard itself I did not read: it is served as a document that would not open from here, so this page reports the disease-control centre's account of it rather than quoting the standard's own text.
In practice#
- Look for the bracket. On a prepackaged product, 三文鱼(虹鳟) is rainbow trout and 三文鱼(大西洋鲑) is Atlantic salmon. The standard that asks for it is voluntary, but sellers who follow it have told you what you are buying.
- Check for 生食 or 即食 as well — shēngshí, for raw consumption, and jíshí, ready to eat. Raw consumption is a product category, not a serving suggestion, and a pack sold for cooking is not the same product as one sold to eat raw.
- A restaurant menu is not a label. The bracket rule is about prepackaged goods; a sashimi plate in a restaurant carries no such obligation, so ask if it matters to you.
- "Group standard" is worth recognising generally. A code beginning T/ is a group standard rather than a national one, and now you know which rung of the ladder that is.
- This is the same grammar as the wine page, where a standard kept its number and changed its force. Chinese standards are a system with tiers, and the tier is usually the answer.
- Hong Kong and Macau run their own food standards and labelling rules, so neither the group standard nor GB 10136 governs a purchase made there.
Frequently asked questions#
Is Chinese salmon actually rainbow trout?#
A great deal of it is. China's largest salmonid farming operation raises rainbow trout in net cages in the Longyangxia reservoir in Qinghai, and a 2018 industry standard placed rainbow trout inside the commercial term 三文鱼. Atlantic salmon is also sold in China, much of it imported.
Is rainbow trout officially salmon in China?#
Only in the sense that a trade association says so for its own members. The 2018 《生食三文鱼》 standard is a group standard — the fourth of the five tiers named in Article 2 of the Standardization Law — and Article 18 provides that such standards are adopted by the association's members by agreement or by anyone else voluntarily. It is not a national standard and it binds nobody who has not adopted it.
How can I tell which fish I am buying in China?#
Read the bracket. The 2018 standard asks prepackaged labels to give the origin and species of the raw fish, written as 三文鱼(大西洋鲑) or 三文鱼(虹鳟). Look for 生食 or 即食 on the same label if you intend to eat it raw.
Is it safe to eat salmon raw in China?#
The Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control said in June 2024 that chilled salmon which has been properly farmed and processed and which meets the current national food safety standard GB 10136-2015 for ready-to-eat raw aquatic products carries a very low risk of parasite infection. That assessment is conditional on the product meeting the standard.
What is a Chinese group standard?#
A standard written by a society, association, chamber of commerce or industry alliance rather than by the state. Article 18 of the Standardization Law provides that it is adopted by agreement among that body's members, or supplied for voluntary adoption by everyone else. Its code begins with T/, and unlike a compulsory GB standard it has no binding force.
Where does China farm salmon?#
Principally in Qinghai, in net cages on the Longyangxia reservoir on the upper Yellow River, where the water is cold year-round at around 2,600 metres of altitude. The agriculture ministry's site describes the province as the country's largest net-cage salmonid farming base, reporting 13,800 tonnes and about 30 per cent of national output.