Sushi?

[fish demon]

I've heard lots of stories about people getting food poisoning from bad sushi, mostly stuff they have purchased from questionable locations like gas stations. I love sushi, though, but really only two kinds since I'm an extremely picky eater. I'll eat the ebi sushi (cooked shrimp on rice) and kappa maki (cucumber, rice, and seaweed). I don't eat it too often, but when I do the fear of food poisoning is always in the back of my head. I only get it from respectable, popular restaurants and grocery stores, and I've never had any problems (knock on wood).

What about everyone else here? Do you eat any sushi?

[jkl81]

From being in the seafood business, the safest is anything without raw meat, but I really have heard of surprisingly few complaints of illness with sushi. Whenever it does happen I would highly suspect it comes from sick food handlers. I personally don't eat sushi mostly because I always grew up thinking fish needed to be thoroughly cooked and raw fish is unappetizing to me, but the kind of stuff you like, I'd say your chances of getting ill are very low approaching nil assuming no one at the sushi bar is infected with norovirus.

[xmdslatx]

I CANNOT stand sea food...but even if I could, I wouldn't eat sushi lol.

I've heard too many horror stories.

I think as long as you get your sushi from a reputable restaurant, all should be well.

[beachy_keen]

I won't eat sushi because of the risk of fp from the rice.

[jkl81]

From the rice? Please elaborate, I really don't know much about how it is used just the fish aspect [img]smileys/smilies_02.gif[/img]

[kyle1989]

i haven't tried sushi before lol, least i don't remember trying it anyway.

i am paranoid with my stomach at the moment, so i personally would not want to eat it in particular

[kckitty]

I'll eat it raw as long as it's not a mouthful of just raw fishy tasting stuff. I need wasabi, veggies, soy sauce etc. or else I get a little gaggy. No problems with fp though.Edited by: kckitty

[xmdslatx]

From the rice? Please elaborate, I really don't know much about how it is used just the fish aspect [img]smileys/smilies_02.gif[/img]

Uncooked rice can contain "Bacillus cereus" spores which can cause food poisoning.They say that the bacteria can survive being cooked and if left sitting at room temp, the bacteria can germinate therefore producing toxins that can cause v* and d*.

It is said that reheating the rice will also not kill the bacteria(as it is heat resistant)

Needless to say, if you order or cook rice eat it asap to prevent the growth of bacteria from becoming too great making the chances greater that you get sick from it.

Bacillus cereus can cause two types of food poisoning, one that causes d* and one that causes v*.

This was taken from a site:

"A broad range of foods are associated with Bacillus cereus infection including cooked vegetables and meats, boiled or fried rice, vanilla sauce, custards, soups, ice cream, herbs, and spices. Many of these foods may contain B. cereus because spores of this organism are heat-resistant and can survive cooking. Studies have shown that B. cereus spores can survive even recommended cooking temperatures. Keeping food on warmers may not be effective in reducing B. cereus because spores can still germinate as food is cooled, passing through the "danger zone" of 140 degrees F to 41 degrees F."


Scary stuff![img]smileys/smilies_10.gif[/img] Edited by: xmdslatx

[fish demon]

Doesn't the sushi rice have things like vinegar and salt in it that would discourage bacterial growth? I've always heard the main danger is from seafood ingredients that may be used in the sushi.

[dreamer1309]

I love sushi, and will try any kind. I guess it is a risk and ive thought about it before but I just cant help myself. Ive never gotten fp thank god! But I always eat at respectable popular sushi restaurants. And I have alot of friends that are also obsessed with it and they hae never had a problem either.

As a side note, getting any food from a gas station that is not prepackaged is never a good idea esp. seafood, and esp. sushi.

[jkl81]

No kidding! The only stuff I get from gas stations is crackers, nabs, candy bars and sealed drinks!

[gertruth]

I love sushi only with vegetables.Edited by: gertruth

[sage]

GAS STATIONS????? ha ha ha ha ha! Um...no - I wouldn't eat that.

I'm allergic to shellfish, so I can't eat most sushi but I do enjoy the veggie ones. Sometimes I've eaten the (raw) salmon one, but I don't care for it much. I live on the west coast of British Columbia (Canada) in a Japanese fishing village...so we have really good sushi here. No gas stations though...lol.

[emetmama]

I dont like seafood at all so I dont like sushi. Nothing to do with my fears I just dont like the taste.

[xheartsxoliviax]

Yeah I would guess if you atesushi from a gas station it may figure you would get s* but If youate it from a repectable clean restuarnt, you;d be fine

Personally, its not to may taste, always teh fear of fp is to great but ive ben in the compan of people who have eaten it and they love it and have never once got s*

[jkl81]

At least around here the good sushi restaurants are very clean and particular about how the kitchen is run. In at least 2 cases the sushi bar is right there for all to see so if someone were doing unsafe stuff people would know, plus they seem like people that care(mostly about the money) but also about providing an EXCELLENT product. I personally just would have a hard time conditioning myself to eat raw meat of any kind. Not sure how I'd like the cooked sushi but I would not avoid it on the grounds that FP was likely.

[xmdslatx]

Doesn't the sushi rice have things like vinegar and salt in it that would discourage bacterial growth? I've always heard the main danger is from seafood ingredients that may be used in the sushi.

Hopefully that's the case.

I thought it was ironic that all I was eating rice when we ate Mexican (because I was scared to eat meat due to fp) yet it can be one of the worse kinds because it's heat resistant! but since it is rare-ish, I'm not going to trip on it too much.

[laylamommy]

I wouldn't eat sushi...

I'm very picky though, I really don't like trying new things. If I do end up trying something new, and it doesn't taste like something familiar then I wont like it anyway. Plus I'm very particular about food textures.

[jkl81]

Food texture is the reason I don't eat raw sushi fish. I almost made myself sick just on some seared tuna. Raw fish is very appetizing looking and darn it it can look good enough to eat raw by the end of a long day waiting on customers and such, but the texture puts me off.

[wackydeli]

Loooooooove sushi. My favorite raw fish would be tuna, but I also really like the veggie kinds, too. Asparagus rolls are my favorite.

I don't worry about food poisoning ever, really. I'll try new things and it doesn't bother me.

[Kazzia]

Gosh, I used to love sushi - I love seafood and I used to often eat those snack sushi packs like the ones in Tescos etc.

Problem is, sushi was the last thing I ate before my drink got spiked in a club and was dry retching - so I've not been able to touch it since. Not impressed [img]smileys/smilies_12.gif[/img]

[wallflower]

From the rice? Please elaborate, I really don't know much about how it is used just the fish aspect [img]smileys/smilies_02.gif[/img]

Uncooked rice can contain "Bacillus cereus" spores which can cause food poisoning.They say that the bacteria can survive being cooked and if left sitting at room temp, the bacteria can germinate therefore producing toxins that can cause v* and d*.

It is said that reheating the rice will also not kill the bacteria(as it is heat resistant)

Needless to say, if you order or cook rice eat it asap to prevent the growth of bacteria from becoming too great making the chances greater that you get sick from it.

Bacillus cereus can cause two types of food poisoning, one that causes d* and one that causes v*.

This was taken from a site:

"A broad range of foods are associated with Bacillus cereus infection including cooked vegetables and meats, boiled or fried rice, vanilla sauce, custards, soups, ice cream, herbs, and spices. Many of these foods may contain B. cereus because spores of this organism are heat-resistant and can survive cooking. Studies have shown that B. cereus spores can survive even recommended cooking temperatures. Keeping food on warmers may not be effective in reducing B. cereus because spores can still germinate as food is cooled, passing through the "danger zone" of 140 degrees F to 41 degrees F."


Scary stuff![img]smileys/smilies_10.gif[/img]

OH my God, how do I avoid it, then? It's in EVERYTHING!! I already knew about rice, but poor, innocent VEGETABLES!!!!!!!!</font> [img]smileys/smilies_10.gif[/img]
Haha, sorry, but that really did not help me at all! My diet continues to shrink...

[lilarchitect23]

i'll eat it raw as long as the chef is well-known and reputable. if they have good sanitation, FP is much less common

[prncesspnk]

wallflower, try not to worry... infections caused by b. cereus aren't
really all that common nowadays. no one i've ever known has ever
even heard of it, much less gotten ill from it. in fact (i've definitely
posted about this before) most "fp*" (i think somewhere around 80%
actually) is really caused by noro. cooks, servers, etc. who are ill pass
will pass it to you. the quality of food in this day and age is really quite
high except for those freak outbreaks we'll have once in a while. hope
this helps!

[grgygrl]

I love sushi. I have heard about fp with rice and another culprit for fp that noone would think of is baked potatoes.

[jkl81]

Baked potatoes? Oh no..that's one of my safe foods!! But while we're on the topic remember the salmonella outbreak with peanut butter in '06-'07? I had a few of those peanut butter jars and never got sick...certainly never v* from it but I was freaking out for awhile for sure...peanut butter who knew?

[grgygrl]

Its getting so you can't really eat anything anymore unless you grow the stuff yourself!

[prncesspnk]

really though, we're all just feeding into our fear and making things
worse by thinking this way. i mean, let's face it... ANYTHING can make
you s*, but the chances are very slim.

plus, how often do those outbreaks really occur?Edited by: prncesspnk

[jkl81]

Lauren I think you're exactly correct about making ourselves more fearful. Most of those things are pretty rare. We need to work on making ourselves less anxious and reduce our risk exposure to the norovirus if at all possible. Not eating is not a good thing.