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Sushi’s popularity raises concerns about health risks, including food poisoning from stale, unrefrigerated, or mishandled ingredients. Raw fish can cause anisakiasis, and some fish contain high levels of pollutants. Acidified rice helps prevent bacterial growth, but must be prepared properly. It’s important to know the source and manufacturing process of sushi ingredients.
The growing popularity of sushi has caused some concern regarding its health benefits. Like any other food, there is a risk of food poisoning from sushi if the ingredients are stale, unrefrigerated, or not handled in accordance with food and safety standards. Always make sure you’re consuming sushi from a reliable source, and the busier the shop, the more fresh the food is likely to be.
To avoid food poisoning from sushi, it’s imperative that the preparation area and equipment used be clean, particularly as the process involves handling raw foods. In sushi bars, any showcase must be equipped with doors to protect the food from contamination and ensure that the correct temperature is maintained. A popular way of eating sushi is to collect the plates from a conveyor system, in which case all plates should be covered.
The leading cause of food poisoning from sushi comes from the fact that raw fish is the primary ingredient. Anisakiasis is the name for a condition caused by ingesting nematode larvae or roundworms that are sometimes found in raw fish. People become infected when they eat raw or undercooked fish that harbored the nematode. Anisakid larvae penetrate the gastric and intestinal mucosa, causing acute symptoms of food poisoning such as severe abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.
The only way to prevent accidental ingestion of anisakid larvae is to eat fish that has been cooked or frozen to recommended temperatures that will kill the larvae. Care should be taken when ordering sushi at a restaurant that does not use fish that has been frozen first. The incidence of food poisoning from sushi is higher in areas where raw fish is eaten more often, such as Japan and the Netherlands.
Many of the fish, especially tuna and salmon, used in the preparation of sushi have been found to contain levels of pollutants such as mercury that are significantly higher than the recommended limits. However, this is only true for fish caught along the coast and does not normally apply to farmed fish. For this reason it is important to know where the fish comes from.
Another ingredient in sushi is acidified rice. Acidifying the rice to a recommended level using rice vinegar aids in the prevention of the growth of pathogenic bacteria. There are cases, however, where the rice has not been acidified to an adequate level and, if kept at room temperature for more than a few hours, this could also lead to problems such as food poisoning.
To prevent food poisoning from sushi, it is imperative to know the manufacturing process and the source of the ingredients used. Restaurants and sushi bars should be cleaned to sterility, as raw foods must be handled properly according to food safety regulations. Anyone making sushi at home should also be aware of the need to follow strict guidelines.
