Curious Cook: Allergic reaction

Nearly a quarter of the British population has a severe reaction to shellfish. — MICHELLE TSANG/Unsplash

An old schoolmate asked recently about the safety protocol for eating raw fish during the Chinese New Year season. The answer is simple. Eat only raw fish that had been super-frozen for at least one to two days at temperatures of -35°C to -40°C. Or frozen at -20°C for a week. If one intends to prepare raw fish at home, then note that house freezers seldom get colder than -18°C. Therefore, it is recommended to store raw fish in home freezers for around 3 weeks at -18°C before use in raw fish dishes.

Without freezing at the appropriate temperature and duration, raw fish can contain viable bacteria such as salmonella, listeria, and Group B streptococcus, which has caused several outbreaks in Singapore over the last decade. Perhaps even worse outcomes might be parasitic infections from tapeworms and the very common Anisakis worms, resulting in a condition called “anisakiasis”.