Are My Sashimi And Raw Fish Safe To Eat? | Talking Point | Full Episode

foreign [Music] bowls the Chinese New Year Prosperity salad all these dishes have one thing in common raw fish but recently raw fish has gone viral not on food reviews but for all the wrong reasons this latest Tick Tock which got at over 63 000 views was posted by Jeffco in April I bought some sushi from this very popular takeout store this store is always crowded with long queue and I trusted their hygiene due to their popularity in Singapore but when I reached home and I've noticed that there were a few thick parasites on it although I was not entirely sure they looked like it to me they are in white worm-like shapes so after the incident happened I changed my Habit to go to a proper Japanese restaurant to eat sashimi and I usually will take a closer look to the raw salmon to see if there were any parasites or any worms on that and I would just flip around the sushi like Jeff I don't want to give up my Sushi just yet so in this episode of talking point I want to find out how safe is it in Singapore [Music] Jeff didn't know if what he saw on the fish were parasites but I want to know exactly what those white worms are helping me out is an expert on fish diseases maritan so I wanted to show you this video because it's been going viral of worms crawling around on our Sashimi what is it this is actually a round one anasakis is one of the commonly found roundworms this is a type of fish parasite that uses fish as their host for survival I have an example here The prominent features of round worms they are cylindrical maybe less than about one to two cm they're usually about whitish in color they call up in the fish flesh or muscle like what you have seen in the video and how do they get inside fish the parasites actually need different holes to survive firstly the adult worm lay the eggs in the intestine of the holes this hose can be a dolphin the eggs of the parasite worms are actually passed out in the feces of the host then the eggs will actually hatch out into free swimming Lobby free swimming Lobby are actually a small little baby worms which are swimming around in the ocean to find the next holes then a crustacean that comes along like a prawn will actually eat the free swimming Lobby and then get infected with it then the fish that comes along that feeds on the prawn will actually get infected with this parasitic worm and of course we end up eating that fish yes that's right then that's how humans actually becomes an accidental host to the parasite how common are these parasites uh they're actually quite common in fish if you eat a wild caught fish raw you you'll likely see some of these wild caught fish as compared to farm fish are likely to have more of this Farm fish are usually farmed in cages these fish do not encounter other holes such as the small Crustaceans there are actually three types of fish parasites but the common fish parasite that can cause stomach upset are roundworm and the tapeworm the tapeworm may actually gets in the fish similar as the round worm so here I have a sample of the tapeworm larvae and this is actually embedded in the raw fish so people who eat raw fish they can miss seeing this and embedded in the flesh and so if I eat it what happens that might be a possibility it will develop till adult stage yikes I have a sample here I'll show it to you wow that is one long tall guy yeah so This Is tapeworm is different from the round worm as you can see here it's segmented and flat like flat pasta how long are these guys depending on the host um they can get to about two to three meters long so the taller I am the chances are is a longer worm in me yeah that sounds gross so how can I kill these parasites so it's either you cook it or you deep freeze it Singapore food agency is actually very stringent they actually would require people who prepare raw fish to actually deep freeze them and these parasites should already be dead by the time it's served to our table to kill parasite Singapore authorities recommend those who import and process ready to eat raw fish to go through deep freezing now this means freezing your fish at minus 20 degrees for up to 24 hours but it's just a guideline and not mandatory Kenny own does not deep freeze the fishy Imports he runs a central kitchen that processes salmon sashimi in this facility we only process farm salmon so farm salmon is coming from a very controlled environment where the risk of parasites is very low and also freezing them would affect the texture of the social media that's right yes because Frozen sashimi and chips Sashimi are different texture yeah they can differ quite a lot and what is the process like for the fish that arrives in Singapore being a SFA licensed fish reporter we don't have to apply cargo clearance permit each time we import the fish in this is to ensure the traceability just in case of any food incidents we will know exactly which batch did it come from once the fishes arrive at the airport our transporter will bring their mover here straight into our HQ here they're coming in refrigerator truck within four degrees throughout the whole Transportation the temperature is kept believe 4 degrees this is straight from the airport we have to do the checks inside the inspection room oh okay yep let's follow the fish we're going to start by inspecting the Integrity of the carbon boxes oh to ensure that it's not broken meaning the no holes no holes this to ensure there's no Bridge of temperature throughout the whole transportation while Kenny does not deep freeze the raw fish he makes sure that the core temperature of the fish is kept below 4 degrees Celsius to minimize bacterial growth that's because unlike the guidelines on deep freezing fish to kill parasites the Singapore food agency or SFA does mandate the amount of bacteria that can be found on ready to eat food we also conduct daily testing Security will pick up the samples from the processing line and send them for bacterial tests in our internal QA lab after the fish has passed the inspections they are clean and sliced [Music] so yeah I see rolls of fish there and they all go through this process these are not the only trolley they are more trolleys kept in the chillers okay yep and they were sent out one trolley at the time this is to reduce the exposure to the external room temperature this room is kept at 15 degrees 15 degrees one five I see about the Chile is kept at below 4 degrees to ensure that the fish are kept at the pressure right [Music] the fish will look something like this after packing ah all the air sucked out okay this will be sent to the restaurant the production date is 11 and I experience on the 13th two days later two days later and anything that is unfinished will be discarded right wow there are many steps no not all companies operate in the same manner as okay so some of these steps are things that you guys have decided to add on on your own yes correct but like Kenny most importers prefer not to deep freeze their fish because it affects the texture when eaten raw which means there is a chance that we could be having Sashimi with parasites lurking on them what happens if unwittingly I ate a worm [Music] I've discovered deep freezing raw fish the only way to kill parasites also affects the texture of the fish which is why most importers and chefs prefer not to Deep Freeze ready to eat fish if that's the case I want to know if there is a way for me to check for parasites before I indulge in my sashimi yoshihiko has been serving Sashimi for almost four decades he's going to give me some tips this is our freshman puff we checked out this eyes wow transparent like very fresh then of course we take like inside so we already removed the gut in Japan why do they remove all the guts in Japan the most time we have one in the intestine dollar question is what are the chances of having the worms still in the fish even after the guts have been removed like just this is [Music] next one we touch then so the meat is firm I can feel like it so this one today very good okay totally no no no soft [Music] and this has no worries no that's good great I could keep going I've learned how to spot parasites but what happens if I miss it since they're so tiny this is Dr lingley min he's an infectious disease specialist who has treated tapeworm infections three of which happened last year one case was confirmed when a patient found this in his stool so what will happen if I ingest a tapeworm the parasite can grow in our system it attaches into intestines and from there it starts to grow bigger and bigger and it reproduces as well it can stay in for years certain individuals they never know right they never know that they have tick worms because they have no symptoms they are completely well there's no diarrhea there's no nausea completely asymptomatic and then one fine day they find either they start having some non-specific gastrointestinal symptoms like a bit of altered stools and even better some have nothing at all and then they find something is crawling in my stools so actually is the tapeworm quite harmless quick answer is it doesn't cause life-threatening diseases immediately but if there is a tapeworm in your system you need to get it looked at the longer they stay in your system it's going to cause problems remember it latches onto the intestine so it's going to interfere with nutritional absorption all of this is going to give rise to general pro health and when it comes to anasakis what are the symptoms like you can have a range of symptoms from nausea vomiting to diarrhea loose stools some people may pass out some blood in their stools so it sounds a bit like just your regular food poisoning pretty much you probably most of the time can't tell apart from regular food poisoning how often do you see patients with you know worms in them well thankfully not at all common but not common doesn't mean it doesn't happen actually bacterial food poisoning are just so much more common than worms okay in fact that probably is the priming causes of food poisoning related to raw fish we would worry about salmonella E coli liberal listeria for instance now special mention for Listeria because the steering in pregnant women can cause severe illness and can even lead to death of the babies if you are healthy it might cause just a minor illness it does become a problem for patients with immunity are not as good because when they come down with the which might be appear to be a regular food poisoning for other healthy patients it can become severe for them sometimes even life-threatening getting sick from eating raw fish usually just means a bit of food poisoning that will pass in a few days whether it's because of bacteria or a pesky parasite but I'm curious about the safety of sashimi and whether it differs from restaurant to restaurant I think it's time for another talking point test I've assembled 15 samples of salmon sashimi from different sources online Grocers high-end restaurants mid-range eateries budget-friendly joints and even supermarkets they are all priced differently from as low as 90 cents per slice to 3.30 cents per slice are we testing for salmonella E coli and vibiopara hemolyticus they are among the top bacterial causes of food poisoning in Singapore I will also be testing for Listeria a dangerous bacteria that could lead to miscarriages and of course parasites I'm sending the samples to a lab and the result will be out in two weeks [Music] most stores that sell Ready-to-Eat raw fish would tell you that it's recommended to be eaten on the day of purchase but these days there's another kind of raw fish that is said to be able to keep for longer up to five days and it's called Zoo case in less than a year of running itsy bitsy spicy Emily tan has sold over 25 000 cans of soy marinated Sashimi or shoyu Zoo case the hottest item on the menu salmon Zoo case Sashimi marinated in soy sauce does it increase its shelf life scientifically speaking when you marinate Seafood into a salt water is supposed to increase the shelf life because when they saw this antimicrobial properties actually kills some of the bacteria not all some bacterias but one thing it doesn't cure parasite but because um the marinade that we are using is not very salty so we wouldn't really recommend people to keep it beyond the usual Sashimi shelf life which is around two to three days so it should be consumed within three days yes yes yes to ensure that optimal freshness can I actually freeze this we have actually tried freezing it and the maximum that can stay in the freezer is around seven days two to three days of shelf life for the suitcase is still longer than having to eat my store-bought Sashimi within the same day of purchase but while salt helps preserve the raw fish for longer it doesn't get rid of parasites only cooking or deep freezing kills the worms it has been a week and the test results on my raw fish samples are out we did a series of microbiological tests including E coli listeria monocytogenes salmonella vibro para hemanticus and parasites so out of the 15 samples that we sent in what have the results shown out of the 15 samples there was only two which was contaminated oh okay salmon 11 had an E coli count and someone ate had listeria monocytogenes present in Salmon 11 we detected a count of 20 E coli quality farming units per grams of the food sample which is at acceptable level as it is still lower than the food regulations of 100 Colony farming units per grams of the food sample this actually shows about 60 colonies so even if I had all this on my fish it's still actually you can say okay it's still safe yes even if you do come down with E coli infection usually it's self-limiting so you might end up having a stomach ache or diarrhea but you should recover only a few days for healthy people how does E coli end up contaminating the fish so when the food handlers they don't wash their hands properly like after going to the toilets and then they handle the food so there can be a chance of contamination but the E coli is transmitted from the hands to the food products okay and so I'm an 11 let me check my list it's from the online browser someone ate had an exterior monocytogenes presence in the food products so its presence alone is a significant result according to the Singapore food regulations it should not be present ingredients to eat food that's from our budget friendly joint why is it so bad healthy people really force it from a Listerine infection but the elderly the young the immunocompromise and pregnant women are at a higher risk and especially for pregnant women if they are infected with hysteria it may cause miscarriages that sounds pretty scary and how does listeria end up contaminating the raw fish so the stereo is a very common bacteria that is from the environment including soil as well as surfaces so it can be introduced at any points along the food supply chain so for example if the table is dirty you know and you put your fish on it and you chop it it can go onto a few samples and subsequently when you still package the fish the bacteria can still remain in it the same monocytogenes is a co-loving bacteria it actually survives pretty well when you keep your food in two conditions if the severe massage is in the fish and you keep it in the fridge it can still survive so it will not die 15 samples no parasites were found so at the end of the day would you say asashimi or raw fish is safe to eat so a lot of diffusion samples that were tested there were 14 samples that did pass the test but by right none of this bacteria should be found in all the 15 samples so all should have actually passed the test raw fish is a high risk food so if you consume it you do have to be cautious our tests show no parasites in any of the raw fish samples but there was listeria in one which would have immediately failed food safety standards so to be extra safe next time you go shopping buy perishables like Sashimi last and keep it in an insulated bag like this and once you get home place it immediately in the fridge and this should keep for about a day [Music] and if you want to extend it shelf life you can also freeze it but once it's thought you have to consume it and when you are ready to eat it clean your hands and surfaces with water and detergent before handling the fish slices avoid cross-contamination by using different utensils for raw fish and cooked food [Music] it's when it comes to eating raw fish and if you think you know you might be at risk then you might want to consider eating something else as for me I do love my sushi so it's a risk I'm willing to take though I think I'm gonna pay a bit more attention to each slice before it goes [Music]

Channel: CNA Insider

Views: 249,235

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Id: nzicc5Ojuxo

Length: 21min 31sec (1291 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 05 2023