Often Eat Sushi and Sashimi, Are There Risks?

Medical Video: Will You Still Eat Raw Fish After Watching This Video?

Do you like to eat sushi or sashimi? Maybe some of you don't like Japanese food because you don't like raw food or you may also be afraid of diseases that can be caused by raw food. However, actually can eating sushi and sashimi endanger health?

Parasites in raw food

The soft and smooth texture of raw fish that we can taste in sushi and sashimi is the main attraction for the audience. As we know, sushi and sashimi are foods that are served in raw conditions. Sushi itself is a rice roll along with stuffing in the form of raw or not raw fish (we will discuss about sushi with raw food filling). While sashimi is a thin slice of raw fish meat, especially salmon and tuna.

You need to know that all living things, including fish, have parasites (which do not originate from contamination). Parasites found in raw fish are usually Salmonella bacteria. This parasite will die if the food is cooked until cooked. However, parasites can still be found in raw foods, such as raw fish in sushi and sashimi.

Most of these parasites cannot adapt to the human body. Some parasites in raw fish may be digested in the body without causing severe effects, but others can cause harmful health effects, such as foodborne diseases (foodborne disease) or food poisoning.

For many healthy people, eating a reasonable amount of raw fish or seafood may pose a small health risk. However, it is possible to cause food-borne diseases, which can potentially cause vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and other symptoms.

What about sushi and sashimi, isn't it dangerous?

Some threats to watch out for when you eat sushi or sashimi, like fish may not be fresh, fish may be rotten, or there are bacteria in fish. However, this can be detected before consumption because usually fish will cause unpleasant odors. Fish that are already in conditions like this, must be immediately removed.

However, there is still a greater threat in raw fish, namely parasites, which are not easily detected. To reduce the parasite, of course raw fish served on sushi and sashimi has been processed in such a way before serving. Fish that are chosen to be made sushi and sashimi, of course, must meet certain standards, so they are safe for consumption.

Fish used to make sushi and sashimi are usually frozen at -20 ° C for seven days or frozen at -35 ° C for 15 hours. This freezing aims to kill parasites in fish. So, as long as sushi and sashimi are properly prepared according to the applicable food safety regulations, the risk of sushi and sashimi from being able to cause illness may be very small, so it is safe to consume. However, this does not rule out the possibility that there are still very small numbers of harmful organisms in raw fish, even though they have been through the freezing process.

In healthy people, eating raw fish, such as sushi and sashimi, may not pose a dangerous risk. However, for people at high risk, eating raw fish can cause foodborne illness (foodborne disease), severe illness, maybe even life threatening. People who are at high risk for the disease are those who have a low immune system, people with lower gastric acidity, pregnant women, babies, children and older adults. These high-risk people are not advised to eat raw fish in sushi or sashimi.

So, in general, consuming sushi and sashimi in fairly frequent amounts may not be dangerous for healthy people. However, you still have to pay attention to the freshness of the fish, the cleanliness, processing, and presentation of sushi and sashimi to avoid unwanted risks. Choose restaurants that truly implement food safety in serving sushi and sashimi.

For people at high risk, eating sushi and sashimi can pose a big health risk. It is better if you are at high risk, consume cooked fish at least 63 ° C for 15 seconds.

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