Worms on salmon? ‘Pretty normal,’ Costco store manager says

Costco Wholesale shoppers in New Rochelle, N.Y., have to be wondering how a worm wormed in its way into a package of the club store’s fresh wild sockeye salmon.

According to WPIX in New York City, a man was in the checkout line in the store on Monday when he noticed something wriggling on the packaged salmon being purchased by the woman in front of him. Looking closer, the man and woman discovered it was a live worm.

“That’s disgusting,” the man told the news station.

But according to the man, the Costco store manager said “it was pretty normal that salmon had a worm or parasite.”

The man said he expected the store manager to remove all the salmon from the refrigerator cases, but that didn’t happen. Another store manager told WPIX that Costco doesn’t have a worm problem in its fish.

It’s not the first time that consumers have found worms on salmon at Costco. According to an ABC News affiliate in San Diego, another Costco shopper found a worm on the salmon she purchased in 2017.

Reportedly, worms crawling around on packaged salmon for sale is normal. Experts say the fish needs to be cooked to kill the worms and other parasites.

Still, most consumers who find worms on salmon purchased from Costco or any other retailer are bound to be repulsed.

Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco has yet to address the issue with its salmon publicly.