Warning: Read this at your own risk of being completely grossed out. A Costco customer believes she found live worms in her fresh wild salmon.
Those who have a big-box retailer membership (like for Costco, BJ’s, or Sam’s Club) often buy their salmon there because they can get big pieces of fresh salmon at a fraction of the cost of a regular grocery store.
But this Costco shopper found that the low price tag may be too good to be true.
In a viral video with nearly a million views, Kathryn Lauren (@mindbodyhealthactual) shared the horrifying thing she found in the Costco fish section. And she isn’t the first person to point this out.
In the TikTok, Lauren noted that every time she picks up a Costco salmon, she sees the same horrifying thing in the packaging.
At first, when she shows the camera the salmon pack, nothing immediately stands out. Then you see it: what looks like a clear slithering worm.
“There is a little juicy worm that is wiggling and alive,” Lauren says. She points out at least two other curled up worms.
“We will not be getting salmon from Costco today,” Lauren says.
@mindbodyhealthactual 🪱I’ve been seeing a lot of videos on social media lately, of worms found specifically in Costco Salmon (they’re probably in most salmon- Salmon is a highly contaminated fish). Any time I purchase fish, I ALWAYS look at the packaging. And sometimes (like today) I look at the Costco salmon specifically, just to see if it has any worms in it. This is the very first package that I picked up to look at, today. Last week, I shared a video of a woman who found worms in her Costco salmon and when she cooked it THE WORMS WERE STILL ALIVE! (That video can be found on @cleanheavymetaldetox ) Check out the 🪱Parasites highlight on @cleanheavymetaldetox The gut and parasite cleanse that I use is linked in my bio (and I do take it alongside TRS and Fulvic, all linked in bio). Do you double check your fish??? #worms #parasites #costco #fish #parasites #fyp #detox #eggs ♬ original sound – MindBodyHealth
Ehh, they’re not quite worms
As it turns out, they’re not worms, but parasites.
A parasite is an organism that lives on or in a plant or animal (called the host). They get all of their nutrients by leeching them from the host. Since they need their host for survival, they rarely kill it, but they do often carry life-threatening diseases, the Cleveland Clinic reported.
“Classically, wild-caught fish could have issues with live parasites,” Matthew Stasiewicz, Associate Professor of Applied Food Safety at the University of Illinois, told The Kitchn. “That [is] part of the risk associated with sushi.”
Eating raw or undercooked fish with parasites can lead to a host of side effects, including diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain, fever, and chills. Depending on the type of parasite you contract, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics, antiparasitic drugs, shampoo, or ointment.
Natural remedies involve beets, carrots, fiber, raw garlic, honey, pumpkin seeds, vitamin C, and drinking a whole lotta water.
To lower the risk of having these creepy crawlers in your fish, Stasiewicz recommends buying farmed salmon over wild-caught salmon.
It’s really not as bad as it sounds
While hearing that there are parasites in grocery store fish is quite terrifying, it’s not as bad as it sounds, Stasiewicz said.
“Worms are gross, but once cooked, the fish would likely be fine to eat,” Stasiewicz said. And if you’re preparing it for sushi, freezing the fish at some point before serving it will kill the parasites off.
People in the comments section had a lot to say on the matter, specifically that it’s rather common.
“Alaskan born and raised here and pretty much all fresh wild salmon have worms. You just have to make sure to cook it completely for freeze for a couple days before consuming,” a top comment read.
“Wild salmon needs to be frozen before eating. This is normal,” a viewer explained.
“Also that’s how you know they were wild caught organic,” a person pointed out.
“I just threw up in my mouth. What the heck!!?” another wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Kathryn Lauren for comment via Instagram direct message and to Costco via email.
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