Sushi and raw fish safety

[Anonymous]

How risky is eating raw fish in terms of food poisoning and parasites? Seeing so much about parasites nowadays but I personally have never gotten sick from sushi, and I hear that sushi grade seafood has to be frozen so it’s safe. Also seeing that it technically isn’t that dangerous to eat when pregnant, but curious to hear peoples thoughts and risk tolerances

[Anonymous]

Issue is does the place making it freeze it, handle it properly?
Sushi Taro is one thing, sushi at WF is another.

[Anonymous]

Sushi = rice
Sashimi = raw fish.
Sushi roll has sushi rice and sashimi rolled in it or as a topping.

Most reputable restaurants will have a real Sushi Chef from Japan, who takes pride and honor in their work, and will have flash frozen fish which kills parasites.

The largest risk comes from the handling of the fish after it is thawed. Humans can transmit parasitic eggs to the food from improper sanitation methods. A good chef will be very clean, but there's always a risk.

As for the rest of the staff that comes in contact with your food, who knows. That's the risk of eating out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sushi = rice
Sashimi = raw fish.
Sushi roll has sushi rice and sashimi rolled in it or as a topping.

Most reputable restaurants will have a real Sushi Chef from Japan, who takes pride and honor in their work, and will have flash frozen fish which kills parasites.

The largest risk comes from the handling of the fish after it is thawed. Humans can transmit parasitic eggs to the food from improper sanitation methods. A good chef will be very clean, but there's always a risk.

As for the rest of the staff that comes in contact with your food, who knows. That's the risk of eating out.

Not any more they won’t. There are people from all sorts of ethnic and other backgrounds behind sushi bars these days, many of whom do not have even the most minimal familiarity with Japanese standards of freshness and hygiene. The guys who fueled the sushi boom in the 80’s are old and retired/retiring. Their replacements are not their equals.

[Anonymous]

I’m Japanese, and I come from a family that is very particular about our food. I am very, very picky about sushi (yes, in Tokyo as well). I won’t eat most “sushi” around here ever, certainly not anything made by random temporary fast food workers. But the ethnic background of the person making sushi does not matter - lots of non-Japanese train in Japan as a proper sushi chef, and are passionate about their craft. I do think it’s a bummer that people around here might get sick from improperly handled raw fish and just blame and write off the entire cuisine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sushi = rice
Sashimi = raw fish.
Sushi roll has sushi rice and sashimi rolled in it or as a topping.

Most reputable restaurants will have a real Sushi Chef from Japan, who takes pride and honor in their work, and will have flash frozen fish which kills parasites.

The largest risk comes from the handling of the fish after it is thawed. Humans can transmit parasitic eggs to the food from improper sanitation methods. A good chef will be very clean, but there's always a risk.

As for the rest of the staff that comes in contact with your food, who knows. That's the risk of eating out.

Not any more they won’t. There are people from all sorts of ethnic and other backgrounds behind sushi bars these days, many of whom do not have even the most minimal familiarity with Japanese standards of freshness and hygiene. The guys who fueled the sushi boom in the 80’s are old and retired/retiring. Their replacements are not their equals.

I thought the moonies fueled the sushi boom?

[Anonymous]

^but the places I trust? Ate there while pregnant, no worries no doubts. But again I am not talking about DC sushi

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sushi = rice
Sashimi = raw fish.
Sushi roll has sushi rice and sashimi rolled in it or as a topping.

Most reputable restaurants will have a real Sushi Chef from Japan, who takes pride and honor in their work, and will have flash frozen fish which kills parasites.

The largest risk comes from the handling of the fish after it is thawed. Humans can transmit parasitic eggs to the food from improper sanitation methods. A good chef will be very clean, but there's always a risk.

As for the rest of the staff that comes in contact with your food, who knows. That's the risk of eating out.

Not any more they won’t. There are people from all sorts of ethnic and other backgrounds behind sushi bars these days, many of whom do not have even the most minimal familiarity with Japanese standards of freshness and hygiene. The guys who fueled the sushi boom in the 80’s are old and retired/retiring. Their replacements are not their equals.

I thought the moonies fueled the sushi boom?

No it was the white people out west. Now they all have parasites like the Japanese.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sushi = rice
Sashimi = raw fish.
Sushi roll has sushi rice and sashimi rolled in it or as a topping.

Most reputable restaurants will have a real Sushi Chef from Japan, who takes pride and honor in their work, and will have flash frozen fish which kills parasites.

The largest risk comes from the handling of the fish after it is thawed. Humans can transmit parasitic eggs to the food from improper sanitation methods. A good chef will be very clean, but there's always a risk.

As for the rest of the staff that comes in contact with your food, who knows. That's the risk of eating out.

Not any more they won’t. There are people from all sorts of ethnic and other backgrounds behind sushi bars these days, many of whom do not have even the most minimal familiarity with Japanese standards of freshness and hygiene. The guys who fueled the sushi boom in the 80’s are old and retired/retiring. Their replacements are not their equals.

I am not surprised. It used to take years and years to become a real sushi chef, now they probably just hire anyone off the street and have them watch a youtube video.

[Anonymous]

Just don’t eat it at truck stop or convenience store.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just don’t eat it at truck stop or convenience store.

But they have such good prices!

[Anonymous]

I eat salmon sashimi. It's my favourite and I also ate it during my pregnancies. I've never had any issues. My kids love it, too.

[Anonymous]

The reason sushi is on the caution list, along with soft cheese and deli meat, is because of E. coli, salmonella, listeria, and parasites. Add mercury for certain types of fish. Listeriosis is the big one to avoid for pregnant women.

I’m an MD and when I was pregnant, I was skeptical about the caution list, so I did a pubmed search to see exactly how many outbreaks of listeriosis was due to deli meat vs cheeses, etc. There have been studies of sushi, poke, and ceviche showing that of the three, ceviche is more susceptible to contamination, but all three are pretty safe from E. coli, listeria and salmonella. Parasites are killed when fish are flash frozen, which is standard practice for sushi grade fish. And I could not find one single case report of mortality or morbidity of a pregnant woman who ate sushi.

In the past 15 years, there have been 13 outbreaks of listeria in the US. Seven were from ice cream, cheese or dairy products, including raw milk. Six were from some sort of produce - salad, sprouts, mushrooms, cantaloupe. And only two involved deli meat. Zero cases from sushi. Most of the outbreaks had multiple sources, so that is why the numbers exceed 13. So my conclusion was that deli meat and sushi were less risky than soft cheese. I said no to soft cheese, but I did eat sushi, salad, mushrooms etc. I avoided mercury laden fish. And I avoided raw oysters/mollusks/shellfih, which I normally do anyways.


https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10839161/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reason sushi is on the caution list, along with soft cheese and deli meat, is because of E. coli, salmonella, listeria, and parasites. Add mercury for certain types of fish. Listeriosis is the big one to avoid for pregnant women.

I’m an MD and when I was pregnant, I was skeptical about the caution list, so I did a pubmed search to see exactly how many outbreaks of listeriosis was due to deli meat vs cheeses, etc. There have been studies of sushi, poke, and ceviche showing that of the three, ceviche is more susceptible to contamination, but all three are pretty safe from E. coli, listeria and salmonella. Parasites are killed when fish are flash frozen, which is standard practice for sushi grade fish. And I could not find one single case report of mortality or morbidity of a pregnant woman who ate sushi.

In the past 15 years, there have been 13 outbreaks of listeria in the US. Seven were from ice cream, cheese or dairy products, including raw milk. Six were from some sort of produce - salad, sprouts, mushrooms, cantaloupe. And only two involved deli meat. Zero cases from sushi. Most of the outbreaks had multiple sources, so that is why the numbers exceed 13. So my conclusion was that deli meat and sushi were less risky than soft cheese. I said no to soft cheese, but I did eat sushi, salad, mushrooms etc. I avoided mercury laden fish. And I avoided raw oysters/mollusks/shellfih, which I normally do anyways.


https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10839161/

Wow - I'm not even pregnant, but this is fascinating info. Thank you for sharing your research.