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After opening a fresh package of raw chicken, do you rinse it off in the kitchen sink before cooking it? If you answered yes and this practice describes you, you’re not alone. Many people do exactly that because they either want to clean off the sliminess, or they picked up the habit from watching their mom cook. In fact, if you don’t wash raw chicken before cooking it then you’re in the minority. According to Jennifer Quinlan, a researcher at Drexel University, around 90% of the people she surveyed say that they too wash their chicken before cooking it. With numbers that high, you’ll definitely want to read on about why everyone should STOP doing it immediately!
To begin with, washing raw chicken is not necessary in the first place. Cooking it to the correct temperature should be enough to kill any and all of the harmful bacteria on it. The U.S. Department of Health foodsafety.gov website states that chicken and all other types of poultry, which includes turkey, duck, and goose, should reach an internal minimum temperature of 165 degrees. By simply making sure your chicken dinner is well done, you’ll avoid contracting food poisoning.
As it turns out, the only thing that washing raw chicken does is drastically increase the chances of spreading bacteria and microbes all around the kitchen area. When running water hits raw poultry it splatters and this causes it to aerosolize, which is to say that it forms tiny, mist-like particles. These ultra fine droplets can travel far in the air and they end up spreading invisible germs all over the place when they finally settle.
Nasty types of harmful bacteria such as salmonella, staphylococcus aureus, and campylobacter jejuni are now not only in your sink, they’re also on counter tops, cabinets and handles, other foods you’re preparing/eating, kitchen towels, you, and everywhere else! If you end up ingesting these bacteria you run the risk of becoming seriously ill. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of suffering through a bout of severe food poisoning, then you know how much of a painful nightmare it can be.
If that’s not enough to convince you to stop washing raw chicken, not much else will! Doing so helps to limit the spread of harmful bacteria and microbes, which in turn limits your risk of contracting severe illness and food poisoning. It’s also one less step for you to do because only by cooking poultry to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit is it enough to kill bacteria. Please pass this important information along to friends and family and help spread the word, not the bacteria!
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