how long is raw fish safe to eat

[High-king]

I bought some WHOLE fresh fish this Tuesday, so today is the third day since I bought it. I've kept it refrigerated, checked it and it still looks safe.

but is it safe to eat?

btw, the fish is called brisling if you want to check it out

[wodgina]

Hi If your getting into the diet it is a good idea to
-Read the stickies
-Buy Aajonus Vonderplanetz book 'The Recipe fo Living Without Disease'
-Read 'Nutrition and Physical Degradation' by Weston Price (it's free on the net)
-Use the search function 'rotten Fish' 'farmed fish' 'wild caught fish' 'high meat' 'inuit fish' 'farmed fish'

How long is raw fish safe to eat?

Some people eat shark which has been rotting for 6 months in a shed in Iceland, 3 days is fine as long as it's not farmed fish.

Welcome to the board, Norway is beautiful, plenty of Norwegians eat raw fish for breakfast daily in the form of pickled herring don't they.

[TylerDurden]

Yes, Andrew's right, there's no reason to worry about the issue of raw fish. After all, the Inuit ate plenty of rotting fish, as a "mood-booster" of sorts, among other populations. I believe the Norwegian version is "rakfisk" and the Swedish version is called "Surstromming".

All that said, when I was a newbie, I was not used to most types of raw animal food, and I was so squeamish about the taste, that I would throw away anything that was left in the fridge for more than 2 days! After a short while, I got used to eating raw seafood  and then, later on, other kinds of raw animal foods and was able to eat aged raw meats like "high-meat", over time. I have sometimes, out of carelessness, left some raw shellfish(usually oysters) in a fridge at a low setting for 2 weeks , and have eaten them with no issues, though, generally speaking, I find it best to eat raw seafood within a week of purchase(if left in the fridge). I can wait longer than that to eat raw meats/organ-meats from land-mammals, as I'm more used to the taste of aged raw meats, really.

[High-king]

great, thanks guys!

with all the food paranoia I was afraid I'd have to throw it away! It actually tastes better now than when I bought it

[boxcarguy07]

Welcome!
Enjoy your fish 

[Raw Kyle]

I might have thrown up once from salmon I left out of the fridge for half a day, but I felt good again after throwing up so it could have been a bacteria borne detox or just a bug that my body removed. When I used to get sick and throw up I would still feel sick after throwing up and keep throwing up more than once.

[goodsamaritan]

Wild Norwegian Salmon... only in my dreams.  We usually get farmed Norwegian salmon in our market.  But then they say there are PCBs, coloring and bad feeds in them. 

I always do the taste test.  If it tastes good and fresh, I eat it.

Is there an online norwegian store I can surf to and order wild norwegian salmon sent by courier?

[TylerDurden]

You'll find that wild norwegian salmon is at least 2-3 times as expensive as farmed salmon, I'm afraid. Shipping internationally as far as the Phillipines may drag costs even higher.

[Raw Kyle]

At an AV lecture he said that Norway or some other Scandinavian country I can't quite remember is the only country you should buy farmed fish from. He said that they feed the fish well at their farms there and are the only people that know how to farm fish well.

[TylerDurden]

At an AV lecture he said that Norway or some other Scandinavian country I can't quite remember is the only country you should buy farmed fish from. He said that they feed the fish well at their farms there and are the only people that know how to farm fish well.

Really? That's interesting. No one should buy any farmed fish from Scotland, that's for sure!

[avalon]

I trust my sense of smell, then taste. If it smells bad, 1st strike. If it tastes bad, 2nd strike... 

That said :wink: I've never tried 'high meat' which I'm afraid to discuss, ehh but if you want to mail some to me, I'll send you someone elses address 

I suppose I will have to try some eventually 

[Raw Kyle]

Really? That's interesting. No one should buy any farmed fish from Scotland, that's for sure!

I should have taken notes.

[Odin]

I bought some fish (similar to cod) on Saturday. It's a filet wrapped in paper.
Unfortunately due to dinner invitations, etc. I still couldn't find the time to eat it.
How long do you normally keep your fish? How do you store it?

I guess fish in one piece keeps better. I had also bought a little mackerell which I ate yesterday and it was just delicious.

Still new to the raw eating, so I'm still a bit unsure about some things

[ForTheHunt]

I bought some fish (similar to cod) on Saturday. It's a filet wrapped in paper.
Unfortunately due to dinner invitations, etc. I still couldn't find the time to eat it.
How long do you normally keep your fish? How do you store it?

I guess fish in one piece keeps better. I had also bought a little mackerell which I ate yesterday and it was just delicious.

Still new to the raw eating, so I'm still a bit unsure about some things

As long as it has been in constant contact with oxygen then you can eat it anytime.. I'd be surprised if you'd get sick even after waiting to eat it for a year.

[MrBBQ]

Oily fish would contain more lipid peroxidation end products the longer it's kept in the presence of oxygen above freezing...

Rancid smell/taste = lipid peroxides = free radical damage...

Go with non-oily fish if eating it high...

[PaleoPhil]

Yet the Inuit and Chukchi ferment fatty fish and the fatty parts of sea animals like walrus along with the lean and no one could find a single case of cancer among the Inuit when they were still eating their traditional foods. Plus, fermented cod liver oil is considered a very healthful food that people have been eating for that reason for centuries if not thousands of years and Green Pastures sells it today at a premium price that people are willing to pay.

I saw it reported somewhere that the Inuit prefer to wait at least a year, if they can, before eating their rotted stinkfish, stink head, stink flipper and high meats (and they sometimes eat it sooner too).

[chucky]

Yet the Inuit and Chukchi ferment fatty fish and the fatty parts of sea animals like walrus along with the lean and no one could find a single case of cancer among the Inuit when they were still eating their traditional foods. Plus, fermented cod liver oil is considered a very healthful food that people have been eating for that reason for centuries if not thousands of years and Green Pastures sells it today at a premium price that people are willing to pay.

I saw it reported somewhere that the Inuit prefer to wait at least a year, if they can, before eating their rotted stinkfish, stink head, stink flipper and high meats (and they sometimes eat it sooner too).

I have 5 months old good quality cod liver oil with vitamin E in my fridge. So I think it's good then ?

[PaleoPhil]

I have 5 months old good quality cod liver oil with vitamin E in my fridge. So I think it's good then ?

It depends on several factors. If it's heated and refined CLO instead of raw fermented, then Tyler, the WAPF, Green Pastures and Dr. Ron think it's bad to start with. I doubt that it would make you sick, but after 5 months it would probably also lose some of it's vitamin D value and some more of the fat could have gone rancid. I'm no expert on this, however, so I'm guessing based on what other folks have said in the past.

Green Pastures believes that CLO should be raw, stored in glass (or animal stomachs, like here: http://www.westonaprice.org/Update-on-Cod-Liver-Oil-Manufacture.html), and kept cool.

[chucky]

It depends on several factors. If it's heated and refined CLO instead of raw fermented, then Tyler, the WAPF, Green Pastures and Dr. Ron think it's bad to start with. I doubt that it would make you sick, but after 5 months it would probably also lose some of it's vitamin D value and some more of the fat could have gone rancid. I'm no expert on this, however, so I'm guessing based on what other folks have said in the past.

Green Pastures believes that CLO should be raw, stored in glass (or animal stomachs, like here: http://www.westonaprice.org/Update-on-Cod-Liver-Oil-Manufacture.html), and kept cool.

Thanks. My CLO is from Peter Möller's, who is also mentioned in that weston price article. I think it's not heated and I do get nice energy or that mental "edge" from taking it after even 5 months.

[PaleoPhil]

It should be fine then.

[sameulroj25]

frozen fish can stay for a long tme bt there are diffrent kinds of fishes which can survive while refrigerated such as tuna fish

[Haai]

I always do the taste test.  If it tastes good and fresh, I eat it.

Is this because you think it is risky to eat rotting fish, or that you just don't like the taste of rotting fish?

[FRANCIS HOWARD BOND]

EXPERIMENT TODAY:    HOW LONG TO KEEP FISH?
Three pieces of cod each on a dish covered with cling film in refrigerator at 6 C, and occasionally aired:
One piece thawed from frozen and kept for one week.
One piece (the one with 9 Anisakis found in it and removed) kept for two weeks.
One piece kept for over three weeks.

First piece tasted slightly off (slight sharp taste) and good to eat.
Second piece was going rotten and tasted great!
Third piece definitely rotten, and tasted SUPERB!!!   Sharp taste in mouth and throat, and better than anyone could imagine (who had not tried similar fish)!   FANTASTIC!
I wonder how it would be after a few months?
The more rotten it gets the better I like it!
Use a calendar rather than a watch to judge how long to keep your fish!

[Sorentus]

Since fish has plenty of pufa fat and fat got rancid wouldn't that make anyone sick? every time i ate rancid fat i ahd HORRIBLE indigestion. and mostly with fish, i had bad fish or cod liver oil and the oily burn lasted for a whole day.

[primalgirl]

I still like it when it gets old, after about a week or more. I got into "high meat" when I started raw paleo in 2010 and enjoyed it and did feel "high" from it, so older fish is still OK to me, and who cares except I have a friend who's super sensitive to smells and one day I had just eaten some old fish before I arrived at her house and she was all..."what is that smell?" LOL I seriously didn't think that it smelled that bad.

I get fish that's pretty fresh and have some from Saturday and now it's Thurs and it's still so fresh—I should keep some to test how long it takes to get smelly.