Why You Should Never Wash Your Raw Chicken!
Really, who hasn't washed their fresh or raw chicken?
Who hasn't slaughtered a chicken? Hahaha, many haven't! It is not that easy to slice necks!
The first chicken i slaughtered, was decades ago! My dad will tell you to do it, like it is nothing! I mean, my mum is a woman, but she does it like breeze!
Terry go prepare one those chicken i bought.
He is referring to a giant crowing rooster. Gosh, it was hell!
From making up my mind;, to trapping the rooster's wings and feet underneath my foot; to ripping off its head.
And on this day was heller! I remember it like trauma! The knife wasn't very sharp enough and i forgot, that one has to peel off some of the feathers from off, the front gullet of the rooster and i sliced and sliced and sliced and the knife just wasn't going in, all along my heart pounding and the rooster giggling in agonizing discomfort.
Gosh, my heart couldn't take it anymore and i left this rooster! I thought i had done no harm, only to see this rooster flying everywhere, its neck dangling and blood vigorously spilling everywhere, staining all the walls and my clothes.
Since then, i never slaughtered it a chicken!
But how about, cutting a slaughtered chicken into correct pieces? Like i said, every other chicken-activity, is much easier!
How about washing the chicken's flesh to removes left-over feathers etc. Much, much easier!
Now this is something we may have done, that we should consider stopping!
ps: I don't know if my small story above, that mentioned my experience with slaughtering a chicken when i was a young boy, is consider NSFW but in some places, it is not!
But why should we never wash raw chicken?
Simply put: It is protect us, from potential food poisoning and some food poisoning cases are really severe and could require hospitals!
Just Say No To Chicken Baths
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 3,000 people lose their lives, from food-borne related Illnesses in the United States per year.
In this video just below, the Drexel University carried out focus-groups and surveys, throughout the Philadelphia area in USA, to try to get insight, into whether people actually wash their raw poultry and they identified groups, who reported washing chicken, with warm or cold water:
video source/credit to: drexel university
In my case, while we were young; we washed the raw chicken, mostly to remove or pluck out any left-over feather! This is one reason, you may want to wash raw chicken, if it was hand-slaughtered.
On the other hand, many wash their raw chicken, with thoughts they they be washing away one of the most common causes of food poisoning, a bacteria called Campylobacter, present on raw poultry.
As seen in the video by Drexel university, there became need for spreading this awareness, thus, they embarked on making videos like the one above and picture-novellas like these:
image source/credit to: drexel university
image source/credit to: drexel university
Raw poultry in general is very likely to be contaminated with campylobacter and as you wash this chicken, the bacteria will spread to everything the water droplets touch: "hands, cooking utensils, other foods and clothing.
And due to aerosolization, a splash does cover distance! In the case of water droplets, NHS UK states that, "water droplets can spread to farther than 50cm in every direction".
image source/credit to: drexel university
Remember that takes only a few campylobacter cells, to cause food poisoning!
Why not just cook it well!
Cook your chicken well, solves it! Aren't you hungering already?
Here are tips from NHS UK, to reduce or avoid food poisoning from raw poultry:
- Cover and chill raw chicken. Basically, you want to prevent any water or fluids from raw chicken, from dripping or splashing to other parts of the refrigerator, even as you try to chill your chicken, so be sure to store your chicken at the bottom of the fridge and in a container, to avoid contaminating other food.
- Wash your hands and contaminated utensils. Ensure that every item, that has come in contact with your raw chicken is thoroughly cleansed.
- Cook chicken thoroughly. Your chicken should be steaming hot throughout your cooking! Clear juices and no pink meat are good signs. You can always use a meat thermometer to make sure your chicken has reached at least (74ºC).
image source/credit to: 9gag
If you didn't already know how to define a raw chicken, into fine correct eating parts, this is it:
I remember the first time I heard of someone washing their chicken. I couldn't help but think how very peculiar
it didnt think so. i have seen alot and didnt even think washing raw chicken can mean any harm!
Maybe its just me. I hate handling raw chicken. It makes me squeamish so the idea of handling it more to wash it totally turns me off!
yep i get that. perhaps, that's the case with some others as well. thank you for adding you experience!
You could however wash your raw chicken with vinegar but lookout not to splash or do you guys think this is also not such a bright idea?
well basically this may not be a bad idea. as long as you arent splashing etc. i think that is it. it is the splashing part especially that causes the spread to items and utensils or other fruits etc that wont be cooked.