Anchovies: the parasite rule, and what else is actually known

Most of what has been studied about anchovies is what might be living in them. Pooled across twelve Mediterranean surveys, anisakid larvae were found in 0.64 percent of fish muscle and 1.34 percent of viscera, and anchovy is one of the three species people most often eat raw or lightly preserved. Of 73 confirmed Italian cases of anisakiasis over two decades, raw or undercooked anchovies were the source in 65.7 percent. That is the reason EU law makes food businesses freeze fishery products meant to be eaten marinated or salted at minus 20 degrees Celsius for at least 24 hours, unless the treatment itself kills the parasite. The law binds businesses. It says nothing about the fresh anchovies you marinate at home, and that is where a Spanish model put the risk. It came out at 0.66 live larvae in an average untreated raw or marinated meal, and a 9.56 x 10-5 chance of illness per meal. The treatment the rule asks of a business is minus 20 degrees Celsius for at least 24 hours, or minus 35 degrees Celsius for at least 15 hours, and those are the numbers a home marinade has to be held against. We found no agency guidance written for home kitchens, so nobody has told you whether a kitchen freezer gets there. The one trial here that found a clear benefit gave women an oil pressed from anchovy and kilka, not the fish on a plate, so it is a result about a supplement. Canned in oil and drained, anchovies carry 28.89 g of protein per 100 g, against 20.35 g raw. The same USDA record puts sodium in that tin at 3,668 mg per 100 g, against 104 mg in the raw fish, so the protein arrives inside a heavily salted food.

The numbers, per 100 g

What cooking and storage change

• EU law requires fishery products meant to be eaten marinated or salted, the usual form for anchovies, to be frozen at minus 20 degrees Celsius for at least 24 hours unless the treatment itself kills the parasite. — Food business operators placing fishery products on the EU market Evidence E source
  Freezing at minus 20 degrees Celsius for not less than 24 hours, or minus 35 degrees Celsius for not less than 15 hours

What it does to your health

• In a crossover trial in 36 women aged 18 to 22, three months of anchovy and kilka fish oil cut menstrual pain scores to 20.9 on a visual analogue scale against 61.8 on placebo. — 36 women aged 18 to 22 years in Iran, two groups of 18, three months per arm with crossover (n = 36) Evidence B source
  Visual analogue scale 20.9 versus 61.8 for placebo, P = 0.001, fewer rescue doses of ibuprofen
• In 161 Malay adults in Kelantan, frequent use of budu, a local fermented anchovy sauce, went with less Helicobacter pylori infection. The authors print an odds ratio of 0.09 with a 95% CI of 0.1 to 0.7, and that interval does not contain 0.09, so the size of the association cannot be read off it. — 161 Malay adults in Kelantan who had upper endoscopy between 2000 and 2008, 79 H. pylori positive and 82 controls, with dietary habits recorded after 2008 (n = 161) Evidence C source
  Odds ratio 0.09, 95% CI 0.1 to 0.7 as printed by the authors

Safety, limits and interactions

• Pooled across Mediterranean surveys, anisakid larvae were found in 0.64% of fish muscle and 1.34% of viscera, with anchovy among the three species most often eaten raw or lightly preserved. — Seafood caught in the Mediterranean Sea, 12 studies published 1960 to 2012, samples of at least 40 fish each (n = 12 studies) Evidence C source
  Prevalence in muscle 0.64% (P < 0.0001), viscera 1.34% (P < 0.0001), overall 0.95%
• Across 73 confirmed Italian cases of anisakiasis over two decades, raw or undercooked anchovies were the source in 65.7% of patients. — 73 confirmed human anisakiasis cases reported in Italy from 1996 to January 2018, eight regions (n = 73) Evidence C source
  Anchovies alone 65.7% of cases, anchovies or sardines a further 15.1%
• A Spanish risk model put the average exposure at 0.66 live Anisakis larvae per untreated raw or marinated anchovy meal and a 9.56 x 10-5 probability of illness per meal. — Spanish population, modelled from 3,799 inspected European anchovies, landing statistics and consumption questionnaires (n = 3799 fish) Evidence C source
  0.66 larvae per untreated meal, probability of anisakiasis 9.56 x 10-5 per meal, 7,700 to 8,320 cases a year predicted
• Among fish-tolerant controls who reacted on skin testing, anchovy was the most frequent positive extract at 73%, and cross-reactivity was significant between mackerel and anchovy. — 39 adults reporting fish allergy plus 26 atopic and non-atopic fish-tolerant controls, 17 fish extracts (n = 65) Evidence C source
  Anchovy the most prevalent positive skin reaction among reacting controls at 73%
• In a Singapore outbreak of 33 cases, imported dried anchovy carried multidrug-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium with an odds ratio of 25.6 (95% CI 3.9 to 167.9). — 33 cases, mainly infants and toddlers, Singapore, mid-July to mid-October 2000 (n = 33) Evidence C source
  Odds ratio 25.6, 95% CI 3.9 to 167.9, P = 0.001

What people believe that the data does not support

• The only anchovy entry in the EU register of health claims is a rejected one, so no seller in the EU may say that concentrated fish oil from sardines and anchovies reduces hot flushes. — EU register of nutrition and health claims, snapshot of 2026-09-21, 2330 claims of which 2067 are non-authorised Evidence E source
  Status Non-authorised

Who this works differently for

• In a cluster randomised trial in 480 Indonesian children, a package that included shredded anchovy raised weight-for-age Z-score by 0.26 and social emotional score by 10 points in those aged 24 months and older. — Children aged 6 to 49 months in East Lombok, Indonesia, 240 intervention and 240 control, February to September 2019 (n = 480) Evidence B source
  Weight-for-age Z-score +0.26, social emotional score +10 points, dietary diversity +1 in children aged 6 to 23 months
• The same trial names the reason anchovy was chosen for 240 children, which is that it fills the gap of three problem nutrients in that diet, namely iron, zinc and calcium. — Mothers of 240 children aged 6 to 49 months in the intervention group, parenting classes twice a week (n = 240) Evidence E source
  Anchovy used as a nutrient-dense food targeting iron, zinc and calcium gaps
• FDA and EPA place anchovy on the Best Choices list and advise 2 to 3 servings a week from that list for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. — People who might become pregnant, are pregnant or are breastfeeding, and children aged 1 to 11 years Evidence E source
  2 to 3 servings a week from the Best Choices list, or 1 serving from the Good Choices list

The bottom line

Cooking and freezing are the whole safety story, and the rest of the page is thinner than it looks. In that Spanish model the exposure figure applies to untreated fish, so a tin and a home marinade are different situations, and the number that matters to you depends on which one you are eating. Two other hazards are on record and neither is about parasites. In a Singapore outbreak of 33 cases, mainly infants and toddlers, imported dried anchovy carried multidrug-resistant Salmonella Typhimurium with an odds ratio of 25.6 (95% CI 3.9 to 167.9). That is one imported batch in one outbreak. In skin testing with 17 fish extracts, anchovy was the most frequent positive among fish-tolerant controls who reacted at all, at 73 percent, and reactions to mackerel and anchovy tracked together. A positive skin test is not the same as reacting to food, and the authors say a food challenge is what settles it. The benefits on record are weaker than the hazards. A crossover trial in 36 women aged 18 to 22 gave three months of anchovy and kilka fish oil and measured menstrual pain at 20.9 on a visual analogue scale against 61.8 on placebo, with fewer rescue doses of ibuprofen. Thirty-six women, one centre, and an oil rather than the food. In 161 Malay adults in Kelantan, frequent use of budu, a fermented anchovy sauce, went with less Helicobacter pylori infection, odds ratio 0.09 (95% CI 0.1 to 0.7). Those two numbers do not agree. A confidence interval running from 0.1 to 0.7 does not contain 0.09, so the paper does not let anyone say how large that association was, and reading it as a 91 percent drop in infection is reading a number that is not there. It is observational as well, and eating habits were recorded after the endoscopies, so no one has shown the sauce caused anything. In a cluster randomised trial in 480 Indonesian children, a package that included shredded anchovy raised weight-for-age Z-score by 0.26 and social emotional score by 10 points in the children aged 24 months and older. The package also included parenting classes twice a week, so the fish cannot be pulled out of the result. The trial team chose anchovy because it fills three nutrient gaps in that diet, iron, zinc and calcium, and that was their reasoning for the design rather than something they measured. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, FDA and EPA put anchovy on the Best Choices list and advise 2 to 3 servings a week from that list. Read that next to the parasite figures above, because the advice is about fish you cook, while raw, salt-cured and home-marinated anchovies are the form behind every infection number on this page. Being on the Best Choices list is no reason to eat them raw. The only anchovy entry in the EU register of health claims is a rejected one: no seller in the EU may say that concentrated fish oil from sardines and anchovies reduces hot flushes. Non-authorised means the evidence did not reach the bar, and nobody has shown the effect is absent. Now the holes, because they are large. We found nothing on how well the body takes up what is in anchovies, nothing on what a realistic portion is in a meal rather than in grams, and nothing on how much the composition moves between catches, seasons and packs. Our corpus has nothing on this fish published since 2024, and the 2024 EFSA re-evaluation of parasites in fishery products returned a 403 and we could not read it. So the safety figures above are the ones we could verify, and a newer European assessment exists that we have not seen.

Sources

1. anch-r4-10 · regulation
   20 °C for not less than 24 hours
   Commission Regulation (EU) No 1276/2011, Official Journal L 327, 2011 · checked 2026-09-23
2. anch-r4-02 · randomised crossover trial
   The treatment groups reported a significant difference after 3 months of supplementation with fish oil (visual analogue scale score 20.9 compared with 61.8 for the placebo (P= 0.001).
   East Mediterr Health J, 2010 · checked 2026-09-23
3. anch-r4-09 · case-control study
   Multivariable logistic regression analysis identified three variables inversely associated with H. pylori infection: frequent consumption of tea (OR: 0.023, 95% CI: 0.01-0.07), frequent use of "budu" or local anchovy sauce (OR: 0.09, 95% CI: 0.1-0.7), and frequent use of "pegaga" or centenella asiatica (OR: 0.25, 95% CI: 0.1-0.65).
   Helicobacter, 2012 · checked 2026-09-23
4. anch-r4-01 · meta-analysis
   Anisakids prevalence in fish muscle was 0.64% (P < 0.0001), in viscera it was 1.34% (P < 0.0001), and overall prevalence was 0.95% (P < 0.0001).
   Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr, 2016 · checked 2026-09-23
5. anch-r4-05 · case series
   In most of the patients (65.7%), the source of infection was raw or undercooked anchovies, followed by "anchovies or sardines" (15.1%), generic "raw seafood" (15.1%), and sardines (1.4%).
   Parasite, 2018 · checked 2026-09-23
6. anch-r4-06 · quantitative risk assessment
   Spaniards were estimated to consume on average 0.66 Anisakis per untreated (non-frozen) raw or marinated anchovy meal.
   Sci Rep, 2017 · checked 2026-09-23
7. anch-r4-07 · clinical study
   Of the atopic (two or more positive skin tests to common inhalant allergens plus a personal and/or family history of allergy) and nonatopic fish-tolerant controls, 20/26 (77%) reacted by skin test to one or more fish extracts tested; the most prevalent positive reaction was to anchovy (73%).
   Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol, 1996 · checked 2026-09-23
8. anch-r4-08 · case-control study
   Consumption of imported dried anchovy was found to be the vehicle of transmission after adjusting for all confounding variables in the case-control study using stepwise logistic regression (OR 25.6; 95% CI 3.9-167.9; P = 0.001).
   Epidemiol Infect, 2002 · checked 2026-09-23
9. anch-r4-12 · claims register
   POL-HC-6314 Catalgine® bouffées de chaleur, containing concentrated wild fish oil from sardines and anchovies Contributes to the reduction in the number of hot flushes -/- Non-authorised
   EU Register on nutrition and health claims, claim POL-HC-6314, snapshot 2026-09-21 · checked 2026-09-23
10. anch-r4-03 · cluster randomised trial
    At the end line point, maternal stress and child morbidity (cough) were lower and dietary diversity (+1) in 6-23-month-old children, and weight-for-age Z-score (+0.26) and social emotional score (+10 points) in ≥24-month-old children were higher in the intervention group.
    Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2022 · checked 2026-09-23
11. anch-r4-04 · authors' background rationale
    Mothers of the children in the intervention group (n = 240) attended parenting classes twice a week to receive shredded fish, liver or anchovy as nutrient-dense foods, which can fill the gap of problem nutrients (iron, zinc, calcium), as well as optimized food-based recommendations developed using linear programming approach.
    Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2022 · checked 2026-09-23
12. anch-r4-11 · agency advice
    Eat 2 to 3 servings a week from the "Best Choices" list (OR 1 serving from the "Good Choices" list).
    FDA and EPA, Advice about Eating Fish · checked 2026-09-23