If you're planning on going out for sushi this week, you might think twice after reading this unsettling but apparently true story: it seems a South Carolina man was shopping at his local Costco on March 14th when he saw something horrifying inside a package of wild Pacific cod:
The shopper, Binh Nguyen of Spartanburg, S.C., posted a video of the parasite to his Facebook page– along with a warning to friends to be extra careful when making their seafood purchases – and it soon went viral (over 300,000 shares as of this writing), attracting the attention of local news station WSPA 7. The station's watchdog program brought the story to the attention of Costo executives, who responded by saying that nematodes are actually fairly common in ground fish like cod, and that the inspection process (which is now under review) doesn't always detect the parasites.
The health risk to humans is said to be very low, as long as the fish is cooked thoroughly... but whether they're poached, fried or baked, I'm not sure I'll be developing a taste for parasites any time soon.
If you're thinking big, there's a worm in Australia that can grow up to ten feet long... that's a lot of worm steaks!