Is sushi really safe?

[gotpasswords]

@dmartin

No cites, but it’s my understanding its an FDA/Health Canada “thing”, not just an insurance thing, i.e. it is illegal to serve the stuff.

Nope. It’s not at all illegal to serve blowfish / pufferfish / fugu in the US. It’s just really hard to get the stuff. Straight from the FDA:

@IA #16-20

GUIDANCE: Districts may detain without physical examination all shipments of Puffer Fish, Globe Fish, Swell Fish, Fugu, or other members of the order Tetradontiformes. Districts may also detain any food that lists these in the ingredient statement or anywhere on the product label.

NOTE: Experience has shown that the best method for obtaining a product which will not cause illness or death is the highly specialized training and knowledge for product preparation. Based on this premise, there is an agreement between FDA and the government of Japan, which permits the importation of the species Tora (Tiger) Fugu (fugu rubripes rubripes) for consumption in the United States. With this agreement, the puffer fish are:

a) processed and prepared, so that they are “ready” for consumption, by the Fugu Fish Market in the city of Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture,
Japan, which handles over 80% of the total Fugu consumption in Japan, and whose processing factories are manned by specialists licensed by the Government as special Fugu Chefs; and

                b)   shipped certified , by the Department of Health                        of the City of Shiminoseki, in Yamaguchi                         Prefecture, Japan, as legally processed in an
                     authorized processing factory.               These shipments of puffer fish from Japan are allowed entry               into the United States through JFK International Airport.                These puffer fish are brought into the United States no more                than two or three times a year, between September and March.                The US import organization, Wako International, located in                New York City, imports these fish into the United States.                In general, puffer fish appear to be adulterated under                402(a)(1) because of the presence of toxin.  However, those                Japanese puffer fish brought in to New York City's JFK                International Airport do not have the  appearance of                adulteration because of the preparation process, as                referenced in the agreement between the Japanese Government                and the FDA. 

[Roches]

audiobottle: The tingling sensation from the toxin that remains even when fugu is properly prepared is, to people who enjoy it, part of the experience. Some people even deliberately eat the parts of the blowfish that have dangerous concentrations of the toxin (the liver and genitals, IIRC), in order to feel the toxin’s effect more intensely. It’s something like a drug.

Sushi is safe because of the way the fish is handled and the way it’s prepared. The fish is either very fresh (i.e. alive until a few hours before it is served) or flash-frozen soon after catching. Often, fish will be delivered to a restaurant whole, either fresh or frozen. Live fish do not have bacteria everywhere; by not using the parts of the fish that are likely to be contaminated, such as the skin and digestive system, contamination can be avoided. Certain ingredients that are not safe raw (crab, some shrimp, salmon skin, etc.) are cooked.

Now, it wouldn’t be safe to buy a tuna or salmon steak from a supermarket and make sushi out of it, because the fish would have been processed some time ago, and it may have become contaminated. (It’s possible to get sushi-quality fish, though.) On the other hand, if you went fishing and happened to catch a tuna, you could probably make sushi out of it.

[Yllaria]

My son is taking nutrition at the local community college and came home with what I think is a sushi urban myth. It came from the nutrition lecturer, though, and was supposedly taken from a journal article, although the details were vague.

Proposed: drinking sake while eating sushi lowers the chance of picking up parasites and bacteria from it.

Any thoughts?

[Busy_Scissors]

@Roches

audiobottle: The tingling sensation from the toxin that remains even when fugu is properly prepared is, to people who enjoy it, part of the experience. Some people even deliberately eat the parts of the blowfish that have dangerous concentrations of the toxin (the liver and genitals, IIRC), in order to feel the toxin’s effect more intensely. It’s something like a drug.

.

I recall hearing that tetrodotoxin poisoning from eating badly prepared puffer fish is one of the most horrific ways to shuffle off this mortal coil. The toxin confers paralysis, esp. on the cardiac muscle, so apparently one can be fully conscious, completely self-aware, just unable to move or respire! You get a front row seat to your own slow, lingering death. :eek:

This could of course be speculative nonsense. Any dopers out there who have had a near-death experience with a bad puffer fish?

[cher3]

@Yllaria

Proposed: drinking sake while eating sushi lowers the chance of picking up parasites and bacteria from it.

Any thoughts?

I remember seeing this in the paper a few weeks ago:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1344962/posts

[cowgirl]

Anyone remember the Simpsons episode (One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish), where Homer learned this lesson?

I love when the Dope imitates TV.