Are you still rinsing your raw chicken before you cook it?
If you are, you should stop.
Even though some recipes still call for chicken to be rinsed before being cooked, this practice is not only out of date but it’s actually dangerous. Rinsing your poultry is pointless because any bacteria that might actually be on the meat surface will be burned off during cooking.
So what happens when you rinse your chicken? Your sink becomes a breeding ground for bacteria, and the spray from the tap can send tiny droplets of bacteria onto counters and utensils as far away as 2 feet.
The pathogen that is most concerning when it comes to raw chicken is called campylobacter. Just 500 cells of this bacteria can make you ill for up to a week.
To put it into perspective, about 1 billion bacteria cells can fit on a pin head. With such a small amount of bacteria needed to make you sick, cleaning out a sink after rinsing raw meat might not be enough.
Sponges and cloths can also be hotspots for bacteria, and when we clean surfaces that have any amount of bacteria on them we esentially just spread it around.
So save the washing for your fruits and veggies and handle your uncooked chicken as little as possible! Ideally, your raw poultry will go straight from the package to a baking dish and into the oven!
To learn more click about why you should avoid rinsing your raw chicken, click here.
