{"id":2313,"date":"2016-10-06T15:45:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T15:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=2313"},"modified":"2016-10-06T15:45:52","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T15:45:52","slug":"selecting-and-serving-seafood-safely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/selecting-and-serving-seafood-safely\/","title":{"rendered":"Selecting and serving seafood safely"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>October is <em>National Seafood Month<\/em> and a time to highlight the importance of fish and shellfish as part of a healthful diet. As with any food, safe handling of seafood is essential to reducing the risk of foodborne illness (often called food poisoning).<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bounties-of-the-sea1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2314\" src=\"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bounties-of-the-sea1.jpg\" alt=\"bounties-of-the-sea1\" width=\"622\" height=\"1800\" srcset=\"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bounties-of-the-sea1.jpg 622w, http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bounties-of-the-sea1-104x300.jpg 104w, http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/bounties-of-the-sea1-354x1024.jpg 354w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 622px) 100vw, 622px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reminds you to follow these basic safety tips for buying, storing, and preparing fish and shellfish.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Buy Right: Fresh Seafood<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When buying fresh fish or shellfish, be sure that it is refrigerated or displayed on a thick bed of fresh ice that is not<em>melting<\/em>. Preferably, it should be displayed in a case or under some type of cover. Check for these signs of freshness:<\/p>\n<p><em>Fish<\/em>:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Fish should smell fresh and mild, not fishy, sour, or ammonia-like.<\/li>\n<li>A fish\u2019s eyes should be clear and bulge a little.<\/li>\n<li>Whole fish and fillets should have firm, shiny flesh and bright red gills free from slime.<\/li>\n<li>The flesh should spring back when pressed.<\/li>\n<li>Fish fillets should display no discoloration nor darkening or drying around the edges.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Shellfish<\/em>:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Look for tags and labels on live shellfish (in the shell) and on containers or packages of shucked shellfish that include a <strong>certification number<\/strong> for the processor. This means that the shellfish were harvested and processed in accordance with FDA national shellfish safety controls.<\/li>\n<li>Throw away any clams, oysters, and mussels with cracked or broken shells.<\/li>\n<li>Live clams, oysters, and mussels will close up when the shell is tapped. If they don\u2019t close, do not select them.<\/li>\n<li>Live crabs and lobsters should show some leg movement. They spoil rapidly after death, so only live crabs and lobsters should be selected and prepared.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Buy Right: Frozen Seafood<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Frozen seafood can spoil if it thaws during transport and is left at warm temperatures for too long. Follow these tips when selecting frozen seafood:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>Don\u2019t buy frozen seafood if the package is open, torn, or crushed on the edges.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid packages that are positioned above the \u201cfrost line\u201d or top of the freezer case.<\/li>\n<li>Avoid packages with signs of frost or ice crystals, which may mean the fish has been stored for a long time or was thawed and refrozen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Store Properly<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Put seafood on ice, in the refrigerator (if it will be used within two days), or in the freezer soon after buying it. If freezing, wrap it tightly in moisture-proof freezer paper or foil to protect it from air leaks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Prepare Safely<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Most seafood should be cooked to an internal temperature of 145\u00b0F and checked in more than one spot to ensure doneness. If you don\u2019t have a food thermometer, there are other ways to determine whether seafood is done.<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li><em>Fish<\/em>: Flesh should be opaque and separate easily with a fork<\/li>\n<li><em>Shrimp and Lobster<\/em>: Flesh becomes pearly and opaque<\/li>\n<li><em>Scallops<\/em>: Flesh turns milky white or opaque and firm<\/li>\n<li><em>Clams, Mussels, and Oysters<\/em>: Shells open during cooking (throw out any that don\u2019t open)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Learn more at:<\/em><br \/>\n<em><a title=\"http:\/\/www.fda.gov\/Food\/FoodborneIllnessContaminants\/BuyStoreServeSafeFood\/ucm077331.htm\" href=\"http:\/\/www.fda.gov\/Food\/FoodborneIllnessContaminants\/BuyStoreServeSafeFood\/ucm077331.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">http:\/\/www.fda.gov\/Food\/FoodborneIllnessContaminants\/BuyStoreServeSafeFood\/ucm077331.htm<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October is National Seafood Month and a time to highlight the importance of fish and shellfish as part of a healthful diet. As with any food, safe handling of seafood is essential to reducing the risk of foodborne illness (often called food poisoning).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition","category-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2313"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2317,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2313\/revisions\/2317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}