Food - Drink
Is It Safe To Eat Raw Salmon?
By KALEA MARTIN
Everyone knows not to eat uncooked meat like chicken or steak, but salmon and some other fish can be eaten raw or cooked. In its raw state, salmon tastes pure and clean without being overly fishy and has a unique buttery texture; however, you should still know the risks of eating this fish raw.
Salmon can contain bacteria and parasites, and the only way to kill these pathogens is to cook the salmon to at least 145 degrees Fahrenheit. Unless you bring your salmon to a lab and test it, there's no way to know if it's 100% risk-free, but knowing what to look for at the grocery store helps.
The safest raw salmon is farm-raised, since these fish are fed a controlled diet, and flash-frozen, since parasites are killed at -31 degrees Fahrenheit. Look for packaging that specifies "farmed salmon" and has the terms "safe for raw consumption" and "flash-frozen," which are better than "sushi-grade."