Everybody knows that raw chicken is loaded with harmful bacteria like salmonella and listeria. It seems totally logical, then, that the first thing you’d do before preparing the chicken is give it a wash.
Why, then, are health experts imploring us to stop doing just that?
The answer might surprise you. It sure shocked me!
How Washing Raw Chicken Could Kill You
According to a Drexel University study, when you wash raw chicken you actually spread all of its harmful bacteria around the meat and whatever surface it’s on.
Of washing, Jennifer Quinlan – head of the Drexel study – says, “It does not get rid of the bacteria, it does not kill the bacteria. However, there is a chance that it will spray that bacteria.”
This process, says Quinlan, is called aerosolization. It leaves your kitchen looking sorta like this – except, y’know, less cartoonish.
All that green stuff is the bacteria that goes flying when you wash raw chicken.
Remember, bacteria like listeria lives on chicken in abundance and can actually kill you. Seriously, if listeria gets into your bloodstream you have a 1 in 5 chance of dying. Children, with their weaker immune systems, are at an even greater risk.
Look at that – we’ve only spoken about one of the dozens of bacterial species that hang out on chicken and we’ve already mentioned death.
Even if you survive a raw chicken bacteria infection, you don’t get off easy. You could catch campylobacter – another ‘fun’ germ that lives on raw chicken. Campylobacter is a common cause of food poisoning and can cause symptoms like:
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