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Fact: Salmon sushi is a Norwegian invention

The Local Norway
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Fact: Salmon sushi is a Norwegian invention
It looks Japanese, but Salmon sashimi is Norwegian. Photo: Screen Grab/Great Big Story

Do you like Salmon sushi and sashimi? Then you should thank the Norwegians, who not only dreamt up the dish but also got the Japanese to eat it.

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According to US video start-up Great Big Story, the Japanese love of raw salmon dates back only to “about 1995” and even then only came about as a result of Project Japan, a ten-year campaign mounted by the Norwegian government. 
 
Until 1985, the Japanese mainly used sea bream and tuna for sushi, considering raw salmon dangerous because the Pacific salmon endemic to Japan is so prone to parasites. 
 
Convincing them that Norway’s Atlantic salmon faced no such problems took some persuading. 
 
“It took us ten years to get a breakthrough in the market,” Bjørn Eirik Olsen, at the time the fish attaché to Norway’s embassy in Japan, says in the video.
 
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Salmon sashimi. Delicious. But if it wasn't for some industrious Scandanavians, this Japanese delicacy might very well have never made it to your plate.

Posted by Great Big Story on Thursday, October 29, 2015
 
 
 

Great Big Story is US cable giant CNN’s attempt to compete with Vice and Buzzfeed, the new media startups which have pioneered distributing stories through social media. 

While CNN provides the funding, the organization is run as an independent startup by its co-founders, CNN executives Andrew Morse and Chris Berend. 

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