[Avodah] Worms (Tolayim) in Fish

[Yitzchok Levine]

Recently a document was posted about worms in fish that claims that 
most fish contain worms, and therefore one should refrain from eating 
many kinds of fish. See 
http://www.jerusalemkoshernews.com/wp-content/uploads/mehadrinanisakis.pdf 
Note that no one has signed his name to this document.  Indeed, I 
know nothing about Chevrah Mehadrin, Kashrus Advocacy of Rockland.

In addition, R. Yudel Shain has put a post 
at 
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/12/fish-infested-with-worms-in-flesh.html 
under the heading 
<http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/12/fish-infested-with-worms-in-flesh.html>


<http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2008/12/fish-infested-with-worms-in-flesh.html>FISH 
INFESTED WITH WORMS IN THE FLESH-including canned salmon

Given this, I contacted the OU to get some information about this 
issue.  I have learned the following:

Rav Yisroel Belsky has issued a psak for the OU, stating that there 
is no need to check for worms and no prohibition of the worms found 
in wild salmon and other fish, in accordance with Shulchan Aruch  Y"D 
84:16. According to this psak, he states that the Shulchan Aruch does 
not limit the permissibility of Tolayim found in the flesh of fish to 
any species of tolaas. The halacha states that the tolaas found in 
the flesh of the fish is mutar, and there is no reason to believe 
present day Tolayim are any different from those found in the past.

There is an audio presentation made by Rav Belsky last year 
at  http://www.ouradio.org/index.php/ouradio/comment/9742/ In it he 
notes that the SA did not require one to be an expert in the Tolayim 
found in the fish flesh to know how they got into the flesh, either 
from the viscera [The internal organs of the body, specifically those 
within the chest (as the 
<http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=3668>heart or 
<http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4209>lungs) 
or 
<http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=2081>abdomen 
(as the 
<http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4179>liver, 
<http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4743>pancreas 
or intestines).] or from some other source. If the tolaas clearly 
came from the viscera after death,  the tolaas would indeed be forbidden.

He also said that the concern that the Tolayim found in the flesh of 
fish may have migrated from the viscera after the death of the fish 
and would be forbidden is not based on any scientific research. Based 
on his own inquiries of experts in the field, Rav Belsky feels that, 
in fact,  the opposite is true, and that the Tolayim in question are 
to be found in the flesh of the fish while it was 
alive.  Furthermore, Rav Belsky said  that the size of the tolaas 
when it is swallowed by the fish is not relevant.

Yitzchok Levine 
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