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Tuna

PostPosted: 09 Sep 2015, 13:46
by essexsmoker
Hi All,

Just wondering if anyone knows why tuna can be eaten medium rare or even raw?


What about other fish?


Thanks.

Re: Tuna

PostPosted: 09 Sep 2015, 18:53
by aris
Japanese eat all fish raw. They do make a point of looking out for parasites though. Sushi chefs are trained to do so.

Re: Tuna

PostPosted: 09 Sep 2015, 21:34
by essexsmoker
Hmm. So where does the safe cooking temp come from? Maybe our fish aren't fresh enough?

Re: Tuna

PostPosted: 10 Sep 2015, 09:38
by Kiska95
The Japanese Sushi masters actually freeze certain types of fish to kill off any worms or parasites

From Sushiencyclopedia.com

" Japanese fishermen, and fish mongers have known about parasites in seafood for hundreds of years, and know which fish are safe from them. Not all fish are consumed raw in Japan for this reason. Only the ones that have minimal or no chances of having parasites have been used for sashimi or sushi. Many precautions are taken to prevent any kind of food poisoning from parasites. Recent scientific studies concluded that all parasites linked to sushi can be killed off by freezing it at a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit) for 24 hours. Nothing tastes better than a pre-frozen fresh sashimi, but freeze treatment is often used on other fishes used for sashimi and sushi just to be extra safe about parasites. The good news is that most seafood have to be frozen anyway when they are transported".

Re: Tuna

PostPosted: 11 Sep 2015, 12:43
by essexsmoker
So is there no e.coli or bacterial illness from fish , just parasites?

Re: Tuna

PostPosted: 14 Sep 2015, 15:33
by Kiska95
No doubt some one will come along and give the definitive answer but I understood that E.Coli came from cross contamination during handling and processing of foods/fish and originates from the Mammalian colon.

I do understand that there is a higher chance for fish in hot/warm countries where hygiene standards are not as good as ours to carry E.Coli. I know that there is a fish handlers disease but that's again for those people in the handling and processing of fish and affects them not the fish.

Hope that helps :D

Re: Tuna

PostPosted: 14 Sep 2015, 20:23
by essexsmoker
I've been reading up on it a bit and it seems that it's only parasites that are a real issue and e.coli or salmonella in shellfish.

Re: Tuna

PostPosted: 15 Sep 2015, 08:54
by QueFrescoPaul
E-coli is a surface bacteria, it doesn't actually grow inside the meat - that's why you can eat beef rare or blue. In other words if you cook the outside then it's safe to eat.

I don't know for certain but I guess its the same with Tuna. There may of course be other bugs in the meat but I assume that the chances of finding any are minimal because Tuna is caught wild and not farmed.

With other meats you have to cook them through to kill off other bugs which actually live in the meat rather than on the meat eg.
Chicken = Salmonella
Pork = Clostridium Botulinum, Hepatitis E

With pork it used also to be tapeworm but I believe that this has ore or less been eradicated from the food chain. You can now safely eat pork pink although you still need to have an internal temperature of 63C

Last point, these rules only apply to cuts of meat, any product formed from ground meat such as a burger or sausage must be cooked through to 75C to eradicate E-coli which could have been present on the surface of the meat before it was ground.

Re: Tuna

PostPosted: 15 Sep 2015, 09:27
by essexsmoker
Apparently there are bacteria that can infect fish but they are quite rare in the ocean. It's more parasites that are a concern with ocean fish.

From a bit of reading (much dross found) it seems that the muscles are more dense in cattle than chicken (not an expert post, but sounds reasonable), so the bugs can't penetrate.