Do you wash raw chicken when preparing it? It’s Food Safety Week and at the top of the agenda is urging people to kick that habit. We’ve all heard of salmonella and E. coli, but a more common bacterium is campylobacter–the cause of most food poisoning in the UK. And with 44 percent of people washing chicken before cooking it, the risk of encountering it is high.
Washing chicken might seem clean, but in fact it’s a dirty practice: you increase the likelihood of spreading campylobacter onto your hands, work surfaces, clothing and cooking equipment caused by the water droplets that splash the germs around.
Campylobacter affects an estimated 280,000 people a year, with about four in five of these cases coming from contaminated poultry. The illness can cause abdominal pain, severe diarrhoea and vomiting. In certain cases, it can lead to irritable bowel syndrome, reactive arthritis and Guillain-Barré syndrome, a serious condition of the nervous system. At its worst, it can kill. Those most at risk are children under five and older people.
There is no reason to wash chicken before cooking. According to the Food Safety Agency, 32 percent of people said they wash raw chicken because their parents or another relative did when they were growing up. But the family tradition should stop with you. As Bob Martin, food safety expert at the FSA, says, “Our survey suggests that mum doesn’t always know best when it comes to food safety.”
Safe Chicken Handling
In order to avoid contracting campylobacter poisoning from chicken or poultry, the FSA recommends the following:
Cover and chill raw chicken
Cover raw chicken and store at the bottom of the fridge so juices cannot drip onto other foods and contaminate them with food-poisoning bacteria such as campylobacter.
Don’t wash raw chicken
Thorough cooking will kill any bacteria present, including campylobacter, while washing chicken can spread germs around the kitchen by splashing.
Wash used utensils
Thoroughly wash and clean all utensils, chopping boards and surfaces used to prepare raw chicken. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water after handling raw chicken. This helps stop the spread of campylobacter by avoiding cross-contamination.
Cook chicken thoroughly
Make sure chicken is steaming hot all the way through before serving. Cut into the thickest part of the meat and check that it is steaming hot with no pink meat and that the juices run clear.
For more information on the FSA’s campylobacter campaign, and for guidance on the safest way to handle chicken, visit food.gov.uk/chicken.
