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I see the words “sushi grade fish” on menus, what does that mean?
By Christina | March 12, 2009
There are guidelines and criteria that the seafood industry must follow when serving raw seafood. Those guidelines and concerns however are about how the fish is stored and not about the cut or quality of the fish. Some research into the FDA standards and FDA documents regrading this topic uncover the same results; there are no clear standards as to what makes fish ’sushi grade’ or ’sashimi grade’ and no definition of the terms.
As stated, the primary concern the inspectors have is regarding to the destuction of parasites, which is done by freezing and storing seafood at -4°F or colder for a total of seven days or freezing at -31°F or below until solid and storing at -31°F or below for 15 hours. These are the regulations set forth by the FDA for a food to be considered “ready-to-eat”. Sashimi or sushi grade is the quality as any other ready to eat raw food.
Like restaurants, fish or seafood vendors claim their product is “sashimi grade” however with no standards to back up those claims, it is meaningless. Interestingly, people and restaurants hear “fresh fish” and think that means never frozen however with the U.S. parasite destruction requirements, most fish, even those labeled fresh has been frozen in the method stated above. The term “fresh” has been linked to higher quality in the minds of many consumers and therefore the restaurants use this as a selling point even though the product may have been previously frozen.
