Do worms die when freezing, do helminths kill?

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A significant number of worm infections occur when eating infected meat or fish. It is known that with sufficient heat treatment( frying, stewing, cooking), eggs of helminths die. And what to do with those products that you want to eat in slightly salted form? For example, with pork lard or fresh fish?

Many people are convinced that the low temperatures of a household freezer are capable of killing parasitic larvae, so eating meat, lard and fish after freezing and subsequent thawing is perfectly safe. Is it so?

Do worms kill when frozen?

Some experts say that worms in meat and fish die within three hours of freezing, because these products are safe for human health. However, few of them specify that the death of helminths and their larvae requires not only strong cooling, but the creation of a certain low-temperature regime.

Scientists-parasitologists, having conducted numerous studies, proved that the larvae of worms are killed after several hours only if the frost occurs at temperatures not higher than -40 ° C. At -25 ° С eggs of helminths die after 72 hours, and at -30 ° Сcomplete destruction of the causative agents of the worm occurs after six hours of food in the chamber. That is, to ensure that meat, lard or fish are safe when they are "raw" in their use, it is necessary to keep them in a freezer with a low-temperature regime.

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But most household freezers operate at -18 ° C, so that the worms and their larvae die, the product must be in it for at least 4 days. Otherwise, "stroganina" or lard is considered to be potentially dangerous, since the product has not deepened sufficiently to freeze.

How to protect yourself from worms with the help of freezing?

To eat meat and fish delicacies and not worry about the risk of helminth infection, experts recommend buying frozen fish in large supermarkets, as during industrial processing the necessary regimes for disinfecting the products are observed. If you bought a fresh product, it must be kept in the frost, if it happens in the winter, or in the freezer for at least four days. When cutting and preparing raw meat, fish, poultry for freezing, a knife intended for this purpose should be used, which, after work, must be heat treated.

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