Rainbow trout farmed worldwide in indoor recirculating tanks and in the U.S. is a "Best Choice." Indoor recirculating tanks often have less effluent, disease, escapes and habitat impacts than other aquaculture systems. High-quality data show that environmental impacts are minimal when rainbow trout are farmed in U.S. ponds and outdoor flowthrough raceways. A small amount of rainbow trout is produced in freshwater net pens by a single farm in Washington’s Columbia River. Regulatory oversight and effective management practices have kept chemical use and the rate of disease low. Escapes are possible, but the farmed trout are sterile and cannot breed with wild populations.

Rainbow trout farmed in Chile in marine net pens is a "Good Alternative." While many environmental impacts (or the risk of impacts) are moderate, antibiotics are estimated to be used more than once per production cycle. The most commonly used antibiotic, florfenicol, is listed as highly important for human medicine by the World Health Organisation. In addition, more than 500,000 farmed trout have escaped each year since the early 1990s, and the total number of escapes is potentially much higher due to undetected or unreported losses. Even though rainbow trout are established in the wild due to historical stocking, the escaped trout have contributed to the creation of feral populations that impact native fish through predation and resource competition. There’s also some concern about the potential for the spread of disease from farmed trout to wild, native fish.