Freezing to Kill Nematode Parasites in Fish Products:

This recommendation for -20°C for 7 days is not in the plan at the URL cited. What the file PARASITE.HTM at that site shows is a portion of a HACCP plan relating to control of parasites, and the table shows in the Critical Limit column a recommendation to 'Freeze at 35°F for 15 hours'. This recommendation, as cited, contains a minor error compared with the FDA recommendation to be discussed below; the -35°F should be -31°F or -35°C. The -20°C for 7 days regime is given in the ucdavis compendium site in the PARASITE.HTM file, http:/wwwseafood.ucdavis.edu/haccp/Compendium/Biological/PARASITE.HTM. The two regimes, -20°C for 7 days, and -35°C for 15 hours, derive from the U.S. FDA Fish and Fishery Products Hazards and Controls Guide, Chapter 5, Parasites. The recommendations are in both the first and second editions, and predate the legislation on HACCP; Sakanari and McKerrow (1989) in a review of anisakiasis quote the same recommendations from an FDA 'code interpretaion' .