Microbiological hazards: Fish sold at retail as fillets or whole or gutted fish are typically thoroughly cooked before consumption, reducing the likelihood of exposure to indigenous or introduced microbiological pathogens, including helminthic parasites. Vibrio species, for example, are readily inactivated by cooking [47].
There are no epidemiological data indicating food-borne illness due to the presence of helminthic parasites in raw finfish products in Australia. V. parahaemolyticus is often associated with food-borne illness due to consumption of raw and minimally processed fish in Japan, but there is no epidemiological link in Australia. Additional hazards potentially present in raw finfish products are enteric pathogens (bacterial and viral) and L. monocytogenes due to contamination by food handlers and from the processing environment. One outbreak of food-borne illness due to sushi consumption (Appendix 2) was tentatively ascribed to viral contamination [19].
