 A TikToker has just exposed this Costco salmon for having a live parasitic worm inside of it, David. And a lot of people are outraged and disgusted by it. But let's talk about why maybe this shouldn't surprise you as much as you think. Yeah, this went viral on TikTok. It got shared thousands of times. It has millions of views. Long story short, they found a live worm inside of a package of wild caught salmon at Costco. Let's run the clip. And it does look gross. But apparently, if you're in the food industry and you prep fish, this is really common amongst wild caught fish. So there was a huge debate and argument in the comments section. But David, I don't work at a fishery, man. I'm just a regular person here to buy my salmon so I can steam it with scallion and ginger. And then here I see this gigantic worm, not a small one. And it's live. Now we're going to talk about the statistics behind how many parasites might actually be in your fish and why sushi is obviously frozen, as you guys may know that or may not know that. But let's delve into the comments section. Hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hop Hop Boys because David, I love fish. So I don't want this to ruin my love of salmon. I do think that the Asian community, when on the Asian Instagrams, was reacting slightly differently because Asians eat so much sushi. Because we eat worms, too. And we eat a lot of sashimi, too. Oh, yeah. That's true. You know what I mean? Whereas Western people, I'd say it's like pretty hit or miss, right? Like probably less than 25% of Western people eat sashimi. Are you saying because Asians eat weirder foods that we're not as turned off by this? First of all, I think everybody thinks it's disgusting. And everybody's going to skip that piece of salmon filet, by the way. And maybe you should even tell the person just because that's not really good for marketing, right? You should tell the person behind the counter to be like, yo, yo, yo, there's a worm inside of this. Yeah, I mean, but I do think it's social media in 2023. But there is an opportunity to learn because there's going to be a discussion in the comments section. Not really on TikTok. I think a lot of people are just posting like the gross emoji. But on Instagram, there was a lot of people who came in, people who were fish mongers, people who work in seafood, sushi chefs. They all sort of chimed in. And apparently, Andrew, like 75% of wild caught fish does have parasites in it, right? Yeah. Or worm-like things. Well, you're saying because these salmon are in the wild and they literally live underwater with a bunch of parasites. They eat a lot of worms. So of course, if they ingest it, it is in their body. Sometimes these worms are alive. And that is why people tell you to cook your fish or freeze it if you're going to eat it raw like sushi. Right. And there's a lot of different ways to flash freeze it or just freeze it in the freezer for like nine days or something like that, denature it. There's all these terms for it that fish people would know. But do you think that a lot of people are just like disconnected from these blue collar realities of food production? Like because a lot of people just don't know how we get our food in America because America transitioned to a service economy so many decades ago. You know what it is? I think a lot of people don't cook themselves. Like if you had dealt with a lot of raw fish before that wasn't frozen yet, you mean it wasn't already like super prepped? You probably would have seen a couple worms by now. Right. It's true. Like, but of course, you're supposed to cook your fish. That's why. I remember that when you used to buy veggies from Chinatown back in the day, I'm not saying nowadays, it was not uncommon to find a green caterpillar in the greens. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Because it was more like straight farmed a table. You know? No. I mean, it's true, man. And I'm not saying like it's dirty, but like you do. It's more not that's how. I found a bug in my bok choy dish before. Like that's not the like it is gross. I pick it out and maybe I skip that piece, but I don't like throw out the whole dish. To be fair, Andrew, me and you also did eat gigantic scorpions in Beijing. So like we just I'm not scared, man. It doesn't bother me. Are you saying that Asians eat more weird food anyway? So they're not as grossed out by this? We have a higher threshold. I think that's of safe to say, you know, depending on how assimilated you are. Anyway, let's just get into the comments section. Of course, our own takeaway. Somebody said, by the way, guys, it's literally dead rotting flesh. The tiny worm inside of it, if anything, is just more reassuring than it is what it is. Oh, it's not like a fake piece of meat. That's how you know it's really from nature where the fishes eat the worms. But it's true that the farm raised fish, I believe, have less parasites and worms in it. Right. Because they're farmed in like a container, like not a container, but like a man-made area versus like some sort of cornmeal versus them hunting in the wild. Right, right, right. Somebody said, man, why is everybody mad at that worm? He's just chilling in his house and everybody's tripping. I mean, in a way, the worm is doing exactly what the worm is supposed to do. Somebody said, yo, all these Karens at Costco need to speak to the manager of the ocean. That's funny. Yeah. Somebody said, how is this Asian-related news? And somebody said, well, it's about Costco, our second homeland. Why do you think Asians in on an aside love Costco so much? Man, I remember Allie Wong had this joke. She said Costco is the Asian's church, because everybody goes there on Sunday. And I think you stock up. Obviously Asians own small businesses, so I've seen small business owners go there a lot. But Asians just love the deal. And they love, and I think they are OK with the quality. Like Costco quality is pretty solid. Obviously, minus this piece of fish. But again, we're going to talk about how, when it comes to wild caught fish, it's a little bit unavoidable unless you freeze it before. So somebody said, I'm Asian. I'm a former sushi chef. You would be disgusted if you saw what actually came out of the fish that we clean, especially more rockfish, bottom feeders, codfish, halibut, all these things. They just have a really high likelihood of having these things. And somebody said, interestingly enough, Andrew, that's why eating raw salmon in Japan is kind of rare. That's more of a Western North American thing, because how parasitic salmon can be. Oh, so salmon is extra parasitic. Yeah, but there are certain fishes that are extra parasitic due to the life that they live. Interestingly enough, Andrew, tuna, not parasitic. This is not going to ruin salmon for me. I love salmon. Yeah, somebody said you just got to cook it or freeze it. There's just different processes. You just got to keep it at negative 35%. Somebody said rockfish, bottom fish, cod, sole, just flounder, monkfish. That's why you cannot eat old, really big grouper fish, because they just might have too many. Somebody said, yes, this is just a trade-off with wild salmon. It has more nutrients, and some people think it has more flavor, but it has less fat and it has more parasites. So this is just the trade-off of fish. Somebody said cornworms are extremely common too in farm-to-table corn, but sometimes people trip off that. Basically, Andrew, are people just being unrealistic with how shiny they want their American fruits to be? Because you know, in America, America is the home of, you know, they want GMO apples and corn to be look like the photos, but then it's removed from nature, but technically in nature, the bugs are part of nature. I mean, I did hear, though, that if you eat enough of these live parasitic worms, even as a human, it's probably not good for you. Yeah, it's probably not good for you, but I'm just saying bugs in general being in contact with the food in America, people trip out about it. I actually, in a way, I think I find the worms even grosser than bugs. Like tiny little speck bugs. If they're cooked and roasted and fried up to me, it's almost like nothing. It is gross though, but I'm like, I've had, I've eaten like bug snacks before. You guys, you know, you can have them obviously in Asia. It's very easy to find like people serving bugs like at the market, at the night market for fun. So I've had that. So I guess like little bugs don't bother me as much as like a live worm would be more gross, but of course you just cook it. So you have to cook it out. I think for me, man, it just has to do with what the science says. If the science says, you know, 20% of these parasitic worms are like extra bad, but the other 80% are cool, but I'm eating this cod that's from the 80% worm zone. I'm good. David, I heard that even in flour, like the powder flour that you might buy, that there's even a certain amount of, not trying to ruin it, rat hair in it, that it's just, they cannot control that it's gonna get in there somehow. No, the FDA in America under controls for a certain volume of things that are not, just due to the process, it's impossible to make sure it's not in there. But I did watch this documentary on Netflix, man. Kind of scared me about eating vegetables. It was like a bioeco. Are you gonna be Jordan Peterson and just eat beef livers? Somebody said in Japan, we eat a lot of raw fish. So we actually are hyper educated on all the parasites. Why do you think in America, we don't get the education? Dude, in the America, man, we don't wanna talk about these parasites, bugs, little germs. It's so funny cause like, I think people should learn about it. And it shouldn't shy people away from eating fish or eating all these different things because you can get E. Coli from anything, man. You can get it from undercooked chicken and everybody loves chicken, right? So I guess like the truth is that I think that especially nowadays, there's the people are cooking less and dealing with raw food in their homes less cause everybody's going out to eat, it's true. So then this like education is not there. There's just a bigger gap between the process and the end, you know? Yeah, cause David, there's no live worms in like acai bowls in my green smoothie. It's never gonna be there. Somebody said, well, yeah, that's why most Americans just like me only eat beef. Let the Asians eat that weird raw fish, man. That's an Asian thing. Do you think it's true? I mean, cause it is true. A lot of like, I would say particularly blue collar middle Americans, they do not eat seafood very often. Yeah. Yeah, no, especially like raw seafood. I definitely still know a lot of Americans. Even to this day, I even know some Asians that don't love sushi that much. Yeah. Do you think that that is a mark of assimilation? Should Asians like seafood? I know that, you know, especially inner China, you're starting to get near Kazakhstan and stuff like that. They don't have that much stuff outside of like river fish and crawfish or whatever. But like, isn't it part of Asian culture to eat seafood? Because a lot of Asia is coastal, like the majority of it. I think so. I think the most Asian person on earth eats a lot of seafood. Probably raw seafood too, to be honest. But yeah, of course, there's certain precautions you need to take. You need to do your due diligence and just at least be educated to, I'd say a six out of 10 level or something. So David, overall to end it up, man, like to wrap it up, does this just go to show how clueless the next generation of Americans are about food, about raw food and how to handle raw food and how to be a man and monger of fish? So you're talking about, we're basically inching closer to that Wally movie where everybody's like just chilling in those like armchairs that are floating. Well, I think in America, we've been reassured so many times that someone else is gonna take care of the problem for us. Right, it's gonna be prepped and re-prepped and like triple prepped in the back. I'm not gonna lie, seeing the live warm at Costco, I'd be like, ooh, a little bit. Of course I would. You know, I'd tell the person, but... Well, I don't have time to know about the different ranking of parasitic worms in my fish when I'm keeping up with Khloe Kardashian's tumultuous roller coaster love life. I do think in school, man, I think there needs to be like crash courses and like more like everyday life things that still exist. Like obviously we have all the technology in the world. We have Uber Eats, but not everybody's still gonna have to come face reality and cook their own food at some point. Yeah, I noticed there's almost like a desire to stay ignorant though. Like some people don't wanna know. They're like, why would I know those things? That's handled by other people, but it's almost like, I don't know. Honestly, public education in America just needs to be completely retold in my opinion. It is from like 1962. Yeah, and here's my final thought, Andrew. I was thinking about it and I was like, humans are kinda like fish because some of us are wild caught and some of us are farm raised. Whoa. Okay, you wanna expound on that analogy a little bit? Well, I'm just saying some of us are more raised from more wild environments and we might have more nutrients and flavors, but then there's more to deal with too. The complexity of everything. More parasites too, who knows? Because you're out in the wild. We are animals, so I don't know. Anyway, guys, let us know what you think in the comments section below. Some serious takeaways from such a silly thing, but yeah, do we need more food education in America to understand what we shouldn't eat? Yo, I'm still eating salmon. I'm still eating raw. I'm going out and getting it right now. I don't know if I'm gonna get wild sockeye raw. I wouldn't eat it raw. Obviously frozen. From a sushi spot. Anyways, guys, thank you so much. Hit that, leave a comment down below. Hit that like button. Check out other episodes of Hop Hop Boys. Until next time, we out. Peace.