Hot water thawing of vacuum packed frozen fish foodsafety

I buy individual portions of tuna and salmon frozen and vacuum packed. Printed on the plastic film is the following 'OPEN BEFORE THAWING'.

My SOP is to throw the fish into a pan of hot water (say 115 F), rapidly thaw the fish (say 3 minutes), open the plastic film and throw it in the pan (fried for tuna, poached for the salmon).

My understanding is that the concern addressed by 'Open before thawing' is that people will leave the fish in the hot water longer than necessary and anaerobic bacteria (like botulism) will rapidly reproduce and the pan fry or poaching will not get hot enough to kill the botulism.

Assuming that I take the fish out of the water bath promptly, do I risk food poisoning by thawing the fish in hot water before opening the package?

I know that the proper way to thaw frozen fish is to unwrap it and thaw it gradually in the refrigerator at say 40 F.

Submitted February 26, 2015 at 06:53AM by vtjohnhurt http://ift.tt/1zfTgfs foodsafety