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Can You Eat Raw Tuna?

By: Author William Thomas

William Thomas

Editor-in-Chief & Pitmaster

I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.
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Can You Eat Raw Tuna?

People usually consume food in two ways. Either you can cook it, or you can eat it raw, and both come with their benefits.

Cooking it lets you add more flavor with ingredients and spices while eating it raw can sometimes bring you more nutrients. However, not all raw foods can be consumed raw.

One food that falls into this category is tuna. In this article, we will discuss whether it’s possible to eat raw tuna and what benefits and risks can come about when eating it raw.

By the end, you’ll be very informed!

Is It Possible To Eat Raw Tuna?

The first thing on your mind is probably whether it’s possible to eat raw tuna. The answer is a resounding yes. One of the most common foods that you are going to find raw tuna is sushi.

Not only is this a staple food found all over Asia, but it’s also popular all over the world.

You wouldn’t be able to go far without finding a place that sells sushi in your area.

There are a lot of benefits when eating raw tuna, but the same goes for risks. One simply can’t have benefits without risks and vice versa.

What Are the Benefits of Eating Raw Tuna?

Tuna has all kinds of health benefits, which include:

  • Tuna is chock full of protein and doesn’t have a lot of fat or cholesterol.
  • Like other fish, tuna has a lot of omega-3 fatty acids. Consuming a decent amount of this can help prevent a whole list of diseases.
  • There are a lot of minerals in tuna. This includes zinc and magnesium.
  • Like minerals, there are a lot of vitamins in tuna. They include vitamin K, vitamin B-12, folate, riboflavin, vitamin, vitamin D, and niacin.

All these things found in tuna can help lower your risk of contracting some serious diseases. However, there are still risks that you should know.

What Are the Risks of Eating Raw Tuna?

There can be a lot of risks when eating raw tuna. This includes:

  • Tuna can contain parasites such as Opisthorchiidae and Anisakadie, to name a few. Some of these parasites can lead to you having symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and other symptoms.
  • Something that can be commonly found in tuna is the metal mercury because of pollution. Consuming a lot of tuna can lead to mercury poisoning, which can lead to brain and/or heart damage.
  • Finally, certain groups of people shouldn’t eat raw tuna because they are at higher risk of getting sick from it. This includes people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, elderly, children, or have compromised immune systems.

These are the biggest issues that come about with eating raw tuna. However, even though there are risks, there are things you can do to lower your risks of getting any of these illnesses.

How to Safely Eat Raw Tuna

Despite the risks, you can help minimize them by doing the following things. This includes:

  • If you are going to be eaten raw tuna at home, you should make sure you know where your tuna is coming from. You don’t want to just buy from any old store. Do your research and buy the tuna from someone who knows where the fish has come from.
  • Even after you have bought the tuna from a trusted buyer, you need to follow some other steps. Before consuming it, it needs to be defrosted in the fridge.
  • If you are freezing it in the freezer, it needs to be at a specific temperature. Freeze it for 7 days at -4 Fahrenheit, -31 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours or fewer.

This isn’t going to eliminate all the parasites that might lurk around inside the tuna. Following these steps just helps lower the risks rather than making them nonexistent.

Don’t think we have forgotten about all those people who like to cook their tuna. The next section is dedicated to them!

How To Cook Tuna

If you would rather cook tuna, we have you covered with these popular methods to cook tuna. They include:

  • A classic way to cook tuna is by cooking it in a pan right on the stove. Season your tuna, and then throw it into the pan once it’s sizzling. Cook it over high heat for about 1 to 2 minutes, always making sure to flip it over.
  • Grilling the tuna is extremely easy. After marinating the fish, put it on the grill over high heat. You just have to cook it for 1 to 2 minutes on each side before removing it from the grill.
  • Baking tuna is the third most common and popular method to cook it. First, you preheat the oven to about 450. While this is happening, marinate the fish for a while before putting it on a baking pan with foil. Brush it with oil and then put it inside the oven. It should be in the oven for about 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the size.

There are other ways to cook or prepare tuna, but these are some of the more popular ones out there that everyone is going to use or have some knowledge of.

If none of these appeals to you, then look up one of the other ways to prepare tuna. Nothing wrong with that!

Final Thoughts

And there we go, all your tuna lovers out there! You now know that it is indeed possible to eat tuna raw and plenty of people already do it in the world.

There are, of course, risks and benefits that go along with it. However, by following some safety precautions, you can lower your chances of getting sick.

It doesn’t matter if you like to eat tuna raw or if you prefer to use one of the cooking methods we listed. All that matters is that you want to eat some delicious tuna!

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