Smoked salmon is a much loved food. One thing is certain, Italians like salmon so much that in 2012 it was introduced in the Istat basket for the survey of consumer prices. Even throughout the year, we Italians buy significant quantities of it. The problem with smoked salmon is called Listeria monocytogenes, we are talking about a bacterium that causes a disease called listeriosis, quite risky for pregnant women, immunosuppressed people, small children and the elderly.
What happens if I eat expired smoked salmon? “Caution”
Transmission occurs mainly via food because the bacterium can be present in pickled and smoked raw fish and survives serenely at refrigerator temperatures. In recent years several consignments of smoked and fresh salmon have been found to be contaminated. The latest alarm dates back to 12 October of that year, when it was taken over in a lot that arrived from Denmark. Listeria is readily inactivated at 70°C after about 10 seconds. According to research published in 2009 by the Journal of Food Science, smoking salmon at quite high temperatures is an adequate way to decrease the risk of Listeria in fish.
As a result, packages of smoked salmon labeled “hot smoked” offer a great guarantee, while wild Atlantic or Pacific salmon and farmed salmon subjected to cold smoke are still at risk. It is therefore better to respect the deadline indicated by the manufacturer to avoid the risk of listeriosis and in fact, as we have already said, this is a sepsis originating from the ingestion of food contaminated by the bacterium listeria, which can also be serious. To understand if the salmon has gone bad, just see if it is covered with a whitish patina. One of the signs that the fish has gone bad is the presence of a translucent white film. Make sure there is none on the surface of the salmon before cooking it. Finally, the color of salmon that hasn’t gone bad is a peculiar red-orange color of salmon meat depending on its diet. His diet includes small crabs whose meat contains astaxanthin. It is through this pigment that the salmon flesh turns red during its life. That’s why you have to be careful with expired smoked salmon.