Freezing fish to remove parasite hazard

From: Pamela Tom (pdtom@ucdavis.edu)
Date: Fri May 26 2000 - 21:33:00 PDT

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    Date: Fri, 26 May 2000 14:24:08 -0700 (PDT)
    From: Faye Dong <fdong@fish.washington.edu>
    To: Seafood listserve <seafood@ucdavis.edu>

    This is in response to Robert Blair's inquiry about the time/temperature
    treatment to kill parasites in salmon. We are presenting a paper at the
    IFT annual meeting in Dallas on Monday afternoon (6/12) in the Seafood
    poster session ["Survival of Anisakis simplex in Arrowtooth flounder
    (Atheresthes stomia) during freezing processing" by Faye M. Dong, My N.
    Ton, Ann M. Adams, Alan P. MacKenzie, and Marleen M. Wekell], so please
    come by if you are interested and will be at this meeting.

    The abstract can be viewed at:
    http://ift.confex.com/ift/2000/techprogram/paper_4473.htm

    We tested 4 freezer temperatures (-15C, -20C, -30C, and -40C), and all of
    them were non-blast models. The minimum total times that resulted in
    total kill of Anisakis simplex in arrowtooth flounder fillets were:

    -15C 96 hours

    -20C 60 hours

    -30C 12 hours

    -40C 9 hours

    According to our data, if a fish is frozen to a core temperature of -20C
    and held in storage for 24 hrs, it will not always result in total kill of
    the nematodes. In our non-blast -20C freezer, we measured the time it
    took for the middle of the fillet to reach -20C (9.5 hr). Taking that
    into account, our data showed that holding fillets for either 26.5 hr or
    38.5 hr at a core temperature of -20C resulted in 11-51% survival of the
    worms!

    We realize that blast freezers will result in much faster freezing rates
    than non-blast models. However, at -20C, which is close to the
    temperature of home freezer compartments, it appears that in a non-blast
    freezer, 60 hrs is a minimum (with no added safety factor) or 50.5 hrs
    after the fish reaches a core temperature of -20C.

    Faye Dong
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Faye M. Dong
    University of Washington
    School of Fisheries
    Marine Studies Building, Room 207
    3707 Brooklyn Ave., NE
    Seattle, WA. 98105-6715

    Phone: (206) 543-0603
    Fax: (206) 543-1417
    Campus box: 355680
    E-mail: fdong@fish.washington.edu
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    NOTE: links to the various SEAFOOD TOPICS plus IFT ANNUAL MEETING
    registration information is available on the web at:
    http://www.ift.org/divisions/seafood/00techpro.html



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