UGH! You really don’t want to know this if you love sushi
Making sushi donuts and sushi burgers yourself takes a little more time than ordering sushi, but it’s incredibly fun and delicious. If you often order sushi from a delivery service, read this… Ever since I found this out, there’s one particular type of sushi that I’d rather skip after hearing this story…
Apparently, there’s a story going around that if you take a close look at your sushi with raw tuna (such as Tekka Maki and Maguro), you might be able to see tiny worms. Just that sentence is enough to send shivers down my spine. But those little worms are parasites, and parasites mean infections that can cause severe abdominal pain and even stomach bleeding. Since sushi has become increasingly popular, more and more people have also contracted this infection. The chance of getting it is even 283 times greater than it was 40 years ago.
Herring worm, brrr
Anisakiasis, or herring worm, is an intestinal parasite found in cod, mackerel and herring, among other fish. In other words, they are tiny worms that lay eggs in raw fish. Raw fish contains plenty of nutrients. If the fish is not frozen or fried in a pan afterwards, the larvae remain in the fish. If you then eat that piece of sashimi, the eggs can start nesting in your stomach lining or even in your throat (it really happened!). And yes, this can make you very ill. Not exactly deliciously safe, then.
Don’t panic
And that is precisely why I didn’t order sushi with tuna last Sunday. Perhaps that was an overreaction, because the chance of spotting a little worm in your sushi in the Netherlands is very small. All raw fish here must have been frozen so that the parasite is killed. In other countries, however, you can inspect the sushi carefully before eating it, just to make sure it is safe to eat.
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