Freezing Sushi

So there I was, all set to denounce yet another piece of nannying legislation from the European Union:

Sushi chefs yesterday claimed that a European Union health and safety directive would ruin the quality of their food.

The EU says that raw fish must be frozen to a temperature of at least -20C (-4F) for more than a day in order to kill parasites.

The
chefs, who train for years to be sushi masters, argue that freezing and
then defrosting the fish can ruin the quality, especially the texture
of popular breeds such as salmon, mackerel and whitefish.

Then I thought I’ll do a little research first. Roundworms are both common and dangerous. Freezing does kill them. Most commercial fishing nations (except Japan) have similar rules. In those that don’t, sushi chefs are trained to hold up the filets against the light of a candle so as to see, and then pick out, the worms.

Hmm. Whatever the rights and wrongs of this law I think I’ll be continuing with my preference for meat thank you.

2 responses

  1. No your first instinct was right. This is nannyism and the usual removal of choice – no different from the all milk must be pasteurized rules that also seem to have shown up recently. Sushi and sashimi do taste significantly better with fresh fish, however cheap sushi done with fresh fish may lead to a nasty parasitic infection. Hence if you buy cheap sushi you want to sacrifice the taste for the surety of not getting worms.
    HOWEVER if you are willing to pay the moolah a good sushi chef will inspect (as the article says) your fish and not serve it if it has worms. Learning how to detect worms is one of the skills that a sushi chef takes a few years of apprenticeship to learn and hence why good sushi is damned expensive.

  2. I’ve heard that the wasabi accompanying Sushi is supposed to kill microbes and intestinal parasites.
    But if there are full grown round worms in your dinner then you’re going to have to eat so much of the stuff that your nose will explode.

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