A good friend of mine told me he bought wild cod at Costco,and while his wife was preparing it,they noticed worms … they’d never seen this before. He said they threw it in the garbage. I told him he should have put it in the freezer until he could return it. Costco should know about this. I rarely cook fish so I don’t know anything about this issue. This was at a Costco on the peninsula of SF.
Some fish have worms. It is common.
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My understanding is that this is very normal especially for wild caught fish. Either we can see them, or we don’t, but many wild caught fishes have worms.
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Your friend should be concerned about throwing perfectly good fish away.
All fresh water fish have worms.
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Happens all the time. Its just part of wild caught fish and why all fish is required to be flash frozen prior to sale in the US …to kill the worms.
Its part of why redfish faded from the kitchen scene fairly quickly…they’re famously (well, here anyway) heavily infested with worms and its a pita to go through and excise them all.
Fresh caught grouper (by amateurs) always requires careful scrutiny and some detail work with a slender knife.
Once cooked, they’re harmless but offputting.
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It goes with the territory.
I’ve bought fresh wild salmon with a long wriggling worm back to the returns department at Costco, and the gave me my money back without hesitation. That said, would have been okay to pull any worms out and cook them.
It’s important to cook fresh fish, especially lake fish, that are not sushi grade, completely, because of the parasites.
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Many fish have worms. You just normally don’t see them because the fishmongers pull them out. If you cook the fish to required doneness, I believe it’s 145F, they won’t cause any issues. Yes, they’re esthetically nasty and consuming them alive will cause digestive troubles, but just assume they’re going to be there.
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You are what you eat.
