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Why do a lot of frozen salmon thawing instructions say to remove the salmon from the individual wrappers before thawing?
(pawb.social)
this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2026
87 points (98.9% liked)
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Oh, that makes sense.
edit: I guess I will start taking them out the package to thaw. Botulism is scary AF
But free Botox without all the scary needles?
That's a good point.
No! The entire idea is to avoid the points!
Just make sure to shove the salmon into your lips instead of between them.
Good post, op. I had no clue and had been thawing fish in the plastic for forever.
What exacerbating factors promote the production of these neurotoxins? Are there any preparation methods that concentrate them or otherwise adversely effect the lethality of my salmon???
Oxygen, I think is the major factor. As long as the salmon is frozen and sealed, the bacterial growth is slow/spores remain inactive. When thawed while sealed, they are all trapped in there without oxygen and become active with the increased temperatures. According to some quick wikipedia search, it is the germination of spores into bacteria that creates the neurotoxin. The absence of oxygen is a requirement for the germination, so it promotes neurotoxin production. Releasing the salmon from the package before thawing lets oxygen in, thus they won't become active as the salmon thaws, since oxygen slows down the bacterial growth.
Not an expert so take it with due caution, but as I recall when canning things like meat and I think tomatoes you have to use a pressure cooker rather than just boiling water to get the temps past 100 C, so I guess just cook the shit out of it?
Botulism toxins denature at 85°C, however the spores survive to temps above 100°C, according to Wikipedia (which lists farther numbers if you want to reference them).
Note: this is not food safety advice. If you think food has botulism I would recommend throwing it out instead of cooking it and hoping you got it hot enough.