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Parasites are repulsive enough in the wild, but coming across one in your food takes the gross-out factor to a whole other level. Case in point: several eye-bleach-worthy TikToks that recently went viral for depicting live worms in fresh store-bought salmon. In one example shared in July, you can see a single hair-thin worm squirming atop an otherwise appealing orange fillet. “No more salmon sashimi for me,” the caption reads, followed by a single-tear emoji.
Unsurprisingly, commenters were equally as disgusted—and many took a similar scorched-earth approach. “This isn’t just one or two videos that I’ve seen of this…I’m done eating salmon and I don’t believe I’ll ever eat it again,” one person commented on another worm-in-salmon video last month.
Understandable due to the sheer ickiness of it all—but also maybe a tad bit overboard, according to a food safety expert.
While it’s not enjoyable to think about (and even less pretty to see in the flesh), parasites are a fact of life for many animals, and that can be reflected in animal products, Martin Bucknavage, MS, a senior food safety extension associate at Pennsylvania State University, tells SELF. Even though we’d like to think of our fish as pristine, for example, finding a worm or two in the raw stuff is actually a common occurrence, he says—and not necessarily an indicator that the affected item is less sanitary or lower in quality. (Particularly if it’s wild-caught, as the salmon depicted in most of the viral vids appears to be.)
That said, something tells us this revelation probably won’t do much to put your mind at ease. And you probably still have a lot of lingering questions after scrolling, like: How did the worms get inside the salmon in the first place? Can they make me sick? And, probably most pressing, Is there anything I can do to get them out?! Without further ado, here’s everything you need to know about worms in salmon—straight from a food safety expert, not social media.
The tiny squigglers you see in these videos are likely Anisakis worms, a type of roundworm that infects marine animals in cold ocean waters, like those of the Pacific. While hardly the only marine parasite, they’re “the primary one that we see in seafood,” Bucknavage says.
In short, Anisakis worms hitch a ride on your fillet via the marine food chain. When infected mammals like whales and sea lions poop, they release Anisakis eggs into the water. When these eggs mature into larvae, they are eaten by crustaceans like crabs, lobsters, and shrimp, which, in turn, are eaten by fish and squid. Voilà—wormy salmon!
Importantly, salmon are not the only fish species heavily infested with Anisakis worms (others include cod, herring, and mackerel), so swearing off salmon specifically won’t fix the problem.
Potentially, yes. In addition to marine animals, Anisakis worms are capable of infecting people and can “cause some issues” in the process, Buckanavage says.
While Anisakis infections (a.k.a. anisakiasis) have historically been extremely rare in the US, they are becoming more common as demand for “exotic” raw seafood dishes increases. (Think: sushi, sashimi, ceviche, and lomi lomi.) You can even see the link between diet and anisakiasis reflected in national case rates: Most infections are reported in Japan, western Europe, and Pacific coastal regions of Latin America, all locations where raw or undercooked seafood is eaten regularly. In Europe, for example, Spain is thought to have the highest incidence due to the popularity of a traditional dish consisting of anchovies marinated in vinegar, according to a 2017 study published in the journal Scientific Reports.
That said, it’s not like anisakiasis is common among the global population: A 2024 study published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering found that around 20,000 cases are reported worldwide every year. (Though, of course, as a 2025 review published in the journal Pathogens acknowledges, cases are still “significantly underreported and misdiagnosed globally.”)
So, what does anisakiasis involve, exactly? When you eat seafood with the worms in tow, the larvae can attach to the lining of your esophagus, stomach, or intestines. Within a few hours, you may start to feel ill as your body reacts to the invasion. GI issues like severe stomach pain, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting are among the most common symptoms, but per the CDC, allergic reactions can also occur, often in the form of rashes or intense itching.
Most Anisakis infections resolve on their own without treatment since the worms can’t survive in your body long-term. If necessary, however, they can be removed surgically or killed off with prescription meds. To sum up, “it can be kind of a painful situation,” Bucknavage says.
Keep in mind your risk level for anisakiasis is best described as a numbers game: The more often you eat raw or undercooked fish, the more likely you are to come down with it. That said, immunocompromised folks and people who have certain underlying health conditions are especially prone to severe illness, according to a 2021 review published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine.
Thankfully, there’s an easy way to neutralize any potential worms: thorough cooking. Regardless of your preferred method (baking, steaming, frying, grilling—anything goes!), preparing your fish so that it reaches an internal temperature of at least 145 degrees Fahrenheit will kill off the worms and make it safe to eat, according to the FDA. (Not only does this eliminate these parasites, but also potentially harmful bacteria, too.) So no, it’s not necessary to swear off salmon forever if you have health concerns after watching the videos.
Of course, however, a nice broiled fillet is not the only way we eat our salmon. So what about raw salmon dishes like our beloved sushi rolls?!
Good news: While cooking is definitely the most reliable strategy for ensuring food safety, the inverse approach—that is, freezing—is also effective against parasites specifically, so that’s how raw seafood suppliers typically make their product safe (or safer) to eat. To properly freeze fish, the FDA recommends taking one of these routes:
In fact, the term “sushi-grade” specifically refers to seafood that has undergone this treatment, meaning it’s “been frozen at a specific temperature for a specific amount of time,” Bucknavage says. That said, he advises against trying to DIY it: You're better off buying raw fish from a place “where that process has been controlled,” rather than winging it at home, he says. (Need a real-world example of why it’s a bad idea? Back in 2022, six people developed a parasitic infection known as trichinellosis after eating black bear meat that had been stored in a household freezer for 45 days to kill parasites, per the CDC. Safe to say their plan didn’t work.)
Not to scare you, but eating raw fish regularly does increase your odds of becoming infected by Anisakis worms (though rare!) or other parasites, since they haven’t been exposed to the high temps that would kill them during the cooking process. Like we mentioned, suppliers will take other measures to deparasitize raw fish (like freezing it according to the guidelines above), but the system has its flaws, and a few larvae can inevitably slip through the cracks. Because of the heightened risk for foodborne illness (including parasitic infections), the FDA actually recommends that high-risk groups—pregnant folks, small children, older adults, and immunocompromised individuals—avoid raw and undercooked seafood altogether.
If you’re not among these vulnerable demographics, however, there’s no need to necessarily forego your sushi dates or poke bowl lunches if they bring you joy. Just choose above-board establishments for your raw meals to minimize the parasite perils (as opposed to, say, the sketchy spot down the street that doesn’t appear to have working refrigeration). Or, in Bucknavage’s words, “a well-respected, high-end operation.” By that, he doesn’t necessarily mean a ritzy, expensive place, to be clear, but rather one that doesn’t exhibit any major red flags. “Cleanliness of the location is one thing—how fish is stored, especially in retail operations,” he explains. “I have seen sushi stored in less than ideal conditions.” Smell, too—that’s “certainly a good indicator of freshness, or the lack of freshness.” When it comes to your health, after all, you obviously want to play it safe.
If worms in salmon are a huge health concern for you (or if you’re simply so disgusted by the thought that you’re willing to do everything in your power to make sure they’re not an issue), Bucknavage has a tip: Farm-raised salmon is a better bet. “[When] fish are being raised in controlled environments, we're less likely to see worms than we are with wild fish,” since they’re not part of the parasite-riddled ocean food chain, he says. Of course, the risk isn’t zero, but your odds are still better.
That said, there’s no real way to be sure that a fillet is entirely free of parasites—and there’s also no real way to fully extract the parasites if they’re already there. Sure, “you could remove the ones you see, but there's a lot of ones that you're not going to see that are going to be down in the flesh,” Bucknavage says. (What’s more, because of their small size, the larvae might be hard to spot even if they’re on the surface.) And sure, you can dissect your entire fillet in search of the hangers-on, but not only would that involve an impractical amount of time and effort, you’d basically end up destroying it anyway. Bucknavage’s two cents? Unsightly as they may be, worms in salmon (or any other fish) aren’t “something that should frighten people away,” he says. “Just know that they could potentially be there—and know that you have to cook the seafood correctly.”
