parasites in fish

[Anonymous Modernist 8770]

I have a question about parasites in fish. Cooking fish at low temperatures (sous-vide and CVAP ovens set to 115-130F) wouldn‚’t kill parasites. Is that correct? Are there fish that you would avoid for these kinds of preparation? I‚’ve been seeing many parasite prone fish (wild king salmon, striped bass, halibut) cooked at low temperatures in restaurants. They have not been previously frozen. I don‚’t think any sushi restaurant would risk serving wild salmon without freezing it first, but upscale western style restaurants do it all the time these days. That‚’s not some BS a waiter told me. I have shadowed at one of the Nationally recognized restaurant in Boston and the chef told me their wild salmon is not previously frozen.

Is there any way to get data on how risky this is? I‚’ve only seen two schools of thought on this: 1) it‚’s a risk and you should not serve parasite prone fish undercooked, and 2) as long as you buy the best quality fish, there is nothing to worry about. I realize that parasites have nothing to do with the freshness or ‚“quality” of the fish. They just happen. The one that concerns me in particular is tapeworm. Is it even visible? I know how to spot cod worm and anisakis, but am not familiar with tapeworm at all.

All this being said, I cook fish with low temperature cooking methods all the time and even give most species to my children (5 yo and 2 yo). I want to figure out if the risk I am putting them under is greater than putting them in the car and driving them to school. :-) I am not trying to make eating risk free, but I‚’d like it to be roughly the risk level of driving in a car rather than riding a motorcycle.