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The FDA standards say that raw salmon should be frozen at -20C for seven days before it's safe to eat. My freezer goes down to -25C. Salmon in my supermarket is considerably cheaper if it's not frozen. Can I buy that salmon, freeze it at -20/-25 at home and eat it raw without significant risk, or am I missing some other requirements?

Martin Epsz
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    Can I please move to the place where raw salmon is cheaper than frozen salmon? Pretty please? – user141592 Dec 14 '18 at 20:21
  • @Johanna Madrid is open! – Martin Epsz Dec 14 '18 at 20:58
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    [This question](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/35213/17272) is about smoked salmon, but freezing risks are discussed in many of the answers. [This one](https://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/94076/17272) also talks about freezing but is a little less definitive. (I don't know if either one is really a duplicate, though.) – Erica Dec 14 '18 at 23:58

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If the salmon is cheaper "raw" than frozen, it's probably a product that was frozen and then thawed so subsequently refreezing it will have the opposite effect of what you're trying to accomplish as thawed products must be cooked before being refrozen to ensure bacteria introduced during the thawing process are eliminated.

That being said: we cannot give you good advice without actually holding the salmon and feeling and smelling to ascertain it is not a thawed product. You should ask the supermarket's HQ if refreezing that product would be safe as the local people will probably not know...

Fabby
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  • Well, the salmon is farmed salmon from Norway and I'm in Spain, so I think it's safe to assume it's frozen and thawed. But I don't see how it follows from that that freezing would have the opposite effect. – Martin Epsz Dec 15 '18 at 11:35
  • Editing answer to clarify – Fabby Dec 15 '18 at 12:10
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    "subsequently refreezing it will have the opposite effect of what you're trying to accomplish as thawed products must be cooked before being refrozen" - this is incorrect, refreezing is considered safe. Also, freezing salmon has nothing to do with bacteria, it only protects from parasites. – rumtscho Dec 16 '18 at 12:43
  • @rumtscho thanks for the feed-back. What is your opinion? Delete answer? – Fabby Dec 16 '18 at 13:32