Poor sanitation can spread pathogens to uncontaminated seafood. At North Coast Seafoods, fish are filleted before being routed to supermarket warehouses, stores, or restaurants. One to two days after processing, fish land at specialty stores or at supermarket warehouses from where they are sent to affiliated stores. Store employees unpack and display fish, then choose and wrap them for buyers. Fresh seafood that's contaminated can be allowed to touch cooked seafood and thus taint it, too.
Fish can remain on sale too long.
Counter clerks with poor hygiene can contaminate fish while they're handling it. In the kitchen, proper handling of fish is also important. When you're preparing raw fish, separate it from other foods. Your order of seafood travels from store to car to kitchen. It needs to be at temperatures of below 40 F to reduce the rate of spoilage.