That string is probably a parasite worm Not unusual in some species of fish You can look up COD WORM I think in old days the cog was placed on a light box and workers using tweezers remover the worms. Or so I was told when studying parasitology The cooked worms not a health hazard, but they do impart an off taste
I worked at a NYC seafood restaurant,and the fish butcher always used a light box to remove the Cod worms.The were small,and slightly pinkish in color,they didn’t look like that thing that came out of the fish finger.
It is very misleading that Bird's Eye are calling Basa a 'sustainably farmed sea fish' on the packet.... the nearest they get to the sea is when they are chopped up, put in a box and shipped 7000 miles to get here!
Basa are very prone to parasites, but I'm less worried about worms (harmless when cooked although apparently they taste weird) and more worried by the chemical treatments used to prevent them. I don't touch Basa with a bargepole.
@@jemmajames6719 I don't buy cod any more (not worms, unsustainable overfishing) but in decades of preparing raw chicken I've never once encountered parasites, although I have in game birds that I've plucked and gutted myself.
Farmed fish could be great if they did it properly but like everything else corners cut left right n centre n Purley about maximising profit not quality off food
My household hasn't eaten any farmed fish (ESPECIALLY farmed Scottish salmon) in quite a while. I used to love spicy chicken thighs or some cheeky southern fried goujons, but thanks to Gareth I don't buy any of these now because 90% is Polish chicken. 🤢
Many years ago I worked in the office of a fresh fish business. Was horrified to learn that the big barrels in the fish gutting area were for chandlers/fish worms. Turned me right off fish. Thanks for your honest review and for the laugh I had at seeing your reaction to the worm.😂
Anything Like that puts me straight off..but look on the bright side because if you had started eating it from the other end you may of found the rest of the tampon 😅
Ur reviews are the best our family always checks in with you first before we try any new goods from the supermarkets keep doing what your doing mate your helping out us consumers alot 👍
I have often mentioned Basa fish in past posts. It is a fish I would never buy. It is usually farmed or caught from some of the most polluted rivers in the world, like the Mekong. It is not an ocean caught fish because it is a catfish. It is a cheap fish and is sometimes used by dodgy chippies to replace other white fish, such as cod, others they use is Whiting or Pollock. This is also why I preach buying your fish that has the skin on. Firstly because you will know what fish it is. Secondly, the skin helps hold all the flakes together. Thirdly buying fresh fish with its skin on is that, you can see just how fresh the fish is both by touch and sight Finally, fish skin is full nutritional value and oils, which benefits us humans. If you are pan frying your white fish you can get the skin nice and crispy to give it an added bit of texture. I come from a long line of family 'fishmongers' and my dad used to have a very popular fish and game shop. We smoked all our own fish and eels. So back in day I ate a lot of seafood. If my girlfriend was cooking a meal of fish in a sauce, she would take the skin off, fry it until crisp and then add it on top as a garnish. Youngsters particularly get the benefits of eating fish with the skin on. I think to help UK trawlermen get back into making a living, people should start eating more fish. Like National Pie Week, we should have a National Fish Week. OK, so there is a National Fish and Chip Shop Day. But that only covers fish like cod and Haddock, (maybe Huss). Working a trawler is no easy job, it's hard graft. If people only buy cod or Haddock, then they will target those fish, the result being over fishing and price increases. Buy into seasonal fish like herring and mackerel, both a Great source of oils and nutrition. By the way, most fish have a type of worm in them. Don't worry though, so long as cook the fish to a 140c they won't survive and you won't see them. You can also freeze the fish and they die. What Gareth pulled out of his fish was more likely to be a parasite. Something you don't want in your food. Basa are prone to parasites, which is another reason why I don't eat it. Would you really eat a fish that grew up in a sewer? Which is basically where basa fish grow up.
Hi Gareth from Spain. I remember when fish fingers first came out in the 50s. My Nan thought they were great and would serve them up with some bread and butter for tea to my Grandad and me. I try to avoid fish from dubious sources.
Can't believe Birds Eye have stooped so low using cheap fish - Everything now with these big brand names is about using cheap ingredients and still charging premium prices. I remember having Birds Eye beef burgers as a kid and from what I remember, they were pretty good but tried them many years later and thought they tasted cheap and nasty. This is nothing more than just one thing - Sheer and utter GREED. Captain Birds Eye will be turning in his grave, Gaz.
Just shows you, the top dogs are pushing out crappier food than some other cheaper stores. Disgraceful! And thankyou for your review, greetings from Spain👍🍷
@@skyd.2084 Perish the thought of that. I tell my boys you get out what you put in and if you put chemicals in your going to get chemicals out no matter how they have been played with.
I've been a vegetarian for years, and only recently added fish back to my diet. After seeing this, no more fish for me. Although I did search on the terms Basa, worms, fish parasites, etc. even though you said not to, lol. Those instant read thermometers are a must in the kitchen, in my opinion.
If you see real Cod that is fresh or defrosted there are may worms etc that can be seen alive even after freezing. I used to work at a massive chip shop lol 😀
Basa is a species of fresh water catfish farmed mainly in Thailand. Hence they are extremely prone to parasitic worms. It is also sold with a yellow dye and smoke flavouring added and sold as poor mans 'smoked haddock' in UK supermarkets. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.
I'm so glad you didn't eat any more and Its probably already been mentioned but basa are scavenger/bottom feeders which is natural for them but they are farmed in the most horrendous conditions in filthy water with no room to swim, they are riddled with worms so you're lucky you only got one, thank you for bringing this to the attention of people who might not know :)
To be honest, the string looked like a menbrane rather than a parasitic worm, each to their own. I actually like the flavour and texture of basa. I get a lot of frozen uncoated basa and they do tend to have stringy bits along the fillet length. It looks to me like there has been a massive move towards Basa over recent months if you look at the uncoated frozen value packets they have all gone from pollock to basa, great for me but not so good for other folks that might be put off by it.
We will be staying with are cod and fresh sea bass from Costco it may cost quite a bit but over the years we have been buying it we have never found any thing wrong with them I am glad you do this so we don’t have to make a mistake and buy rubbish thanks
I love your reviews to bits mate, truly, but it's no good telling me not to look something up on Google lol... Apparently it's an Asian (Vietnamese) sourced white fish that's cheap to farm. And the alarm bells were already ringing before I read that it carries a risk of food poisoning unless cooked thoroughly and contains pathogens. So I looked up pathogens too... Will be giving these a miss mate. Oh and I'd be putting a loo roll in the fridge ! Keep 'em coming top man 👍
I bought the Iceland basa fish with different flavour batters and was really put off by the bland taste of the fish .no way is it a good replacement for cod or haddock.
Gareth,mate the wife and I just sat down for our tea.Spicy pork&rice😊Then fish finger parasites ( curried crumbs, W.T.Fish) pop up on your vlog!!!😢 The kitchen bin now stuffed with our dinner 😮 And the good lady swearing off fish fingers for life😢😢At least you saved me the cost 😊Cheers 🥂
To be fair, I'm glad that you did this mate cause I have noticed with a few birds. Eye products lately the quality has been quite disgusting. And the chicken as well I don't touch fish fingers unless it's cod.
Basa is one of the cheapest fish available, hence why they are used in processed foods such as this, and are farmed extensively in Asia. However, Basa are also very prone to parasitic worms, as has already pointed out, but I have also witnessed "live" parasitic worms in fresh, British, non-farmed fish, especially Mackerel (other non-farmed fish can have them also). They are, indeed, harmless when cooked and most people never notice them but, to be perfectly honest, every time I saw them trying to escape when when filliting a fish, it kinda put me off eating fish. I used to dabble in fishmongery, by the way, so have seen quite a few fish parasites in my time.
Many years ago i had a work interview at Bird's eye, they had about 16 of us around a large work table filling out forms, unfortunately... Many of the people were from other countries, the interview took over 3hrs to fill out a 20min form because some couldn't speak or write in English... I laugh about it now as it reminded me of the 70s tv show Mind Your Language 😂 i was invited for the 2nd interview, i said no thanks lol
Basa is called swai here in the US. Bought some a while back because the grocery store didn’t have my usual flounder not knowing what it was. Just said mild white fish on the bag. Thought it might be a change. Cooked up some and it was disgusting. I couldn’t even finish eating it. I binned it and took the remaining uncooked fillets back to the store and it refunded my money. Never will I buy that fish and even more so now I know what it is.
Basa is a really cheap fish, and for £3.50 and for 360g. Birds Eye "Definitely" scrapping the barrel using that particular fish. With Cod and Haddock stocks declining with over fishing, Pollock is way the scale, but at least it's a Sea Fish, not freshwater. I sea fish all year round, but get fed up catching loads of Dogfish. In my much younger days, many moons ago, you would see it in your local Chippie called, "Rock Salmon".
I remember after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. One of the first businesses to reopen was Burger King. They were the tastiest burgers I’ve ever had. They were like eating a steak. A Big Mac comes nowhere near a Burger King. even in the UK. I think a triple burger would be too much for me. But I can polish off a double burger. I’ts just not the burger. My go to BK always came with onion, tomato, lettuce, pickle and mayo. I found Macy Dees to be limp and pretty tasteless, so the extra couple of mile drive to BK was well worth it.
Cod certainly had worms and probably still do. My wife used to go her grand parents for lunch and she said she saw an enamel plate with cod filets and there were worms coming out of them. Put her off! Cannot blame her. Fish is not inspected as is meat at abattoirs. So beware but the chip shop would kill it dead at their temperature.
Now that we have to source our food from further away (post-Brexit) I suspect we are going to be seeing more and more of this kind of thing in our supermarkets.
Basa is a fresh water fish and is susceptible to parasites. Never worth the risk. After seeing this and learning the price, I'll stick to the Aldi Essentials ones, ta. Great with lettuce and ketchup in a butty!😊👍
Yeah that was a a parasite worm, some chippys have been known to have them in their fish! But If I ever found one I would never go there again thats for sure, but thats just me!!
I’ve probably eaten basa once in my life, I check all the labels before buying and soon as I knew it was a farmed fish from the far east I gave a massive swerve 😅 I rarely eat farmed prawns, or Salmon either which is farmed in the uk knowing how intensive the process is. Nah something doesn’t sit right when you have to ship something thousands of miles from a giant chemical laden swimming pool, when in the uk we are an island surrounded by oceans containing all different species of wild fish we could try. This kind of farmed fish may be cheaper, but it comes at a cost to health no doubt.
Hey BFG, if a box says FISH on the Front of the box, it could contain ANYTHING, Only buy these type of items when it says what the fish is on the front, I only get haddock. I DO enjoy BASA, & do buy the ‘naked’ fillets, so I can see if there are any undesirable ‘hitch hikers’ in the flesh. Cod can have pretty much the same, red blood worms, thats why i stick to haddock between the two.
00:06:29 I saw something like that floating in a glass of my tap water. From then on I have always had my coffee made with bottled water. I only have one cup of coffee a day so it's not expensive..
@@louisbeerreviews8964 yes it is just search bill gates new food and our government plans to introduce meal worms as protein in our food. Plus meat replacement using bugs as protein. It's already being used in bread.
They're only £2.50 from £3.75 currently in Asda but they don't appeal to me, not Basa or that white wiggly string thing. Great honest vlog as always, thank you 😀👍
Not good Gaz. To start with Basa is a cheaply resourced fish (Asian catfish), and I don't blame you for being disappointed. When the fish product manufacturers stop using Pollock as a substitute, (after Cod catches declined and the price of fish fillet went rocketing) for their cheaper fish products it is just another warning of how the Pollock fish stocks are now decreasing rapidly also (and the price has rocketed as well). Secondly, a certification mark can be bought by a company to put on their packaging, whether the fish is farmed responsibly or not as has been proved in the past. It can mean nothing sometimes, as other products (years ago) with a certain certified logo on (the blue whale) was exposed, and proved to be false in some instances, creating a false statement and promise to the consumer, revealing just how the fish was being resourced. All a big money spinner for the 'so called' rule makers at the top being payed millions for the logo's use. Thanks, it is a big warning to check the packaging, give it to the bin (the best place for it). All the best bud.
