Research Reveals That Washing Chicken Is 'Unhealthy'

The common belief that washing raw chicken before cooking is safe, or even prevents food-borne illness was broken by a new research. The research was claiming that the rinse can actually be doing more harm than good. Food safety researchers have released four short video stories to promote the "Don't Wash Your Chicken" campaign.

In each of the campaign's mini-drama videos, a knowing family member - wife, granddaughter, daughter and mother - explains to a well-intentioned home cook that the common practice of rinsing raw poultry before cooking is actually unsafe.

An animated "Germ-Vision" graphic then shows that washing chicken only risks splattering and spreading bacteria that then can cross-contaminate other foods and kitchen surfaces.

Food safety researcher Dr. Jennifer Quinlan, an associate professor at Drexel University, who helped develop the campaign, said that you should assume that if you have chicken, you have either Salmonella or Campylobacter bacteria on it, if not both.

These two bacteria, she noted, are the leading causes of food-borne illness.

Quinlan said that if you wash the chicken, you're more likely to spray bacteria all over the kitchen and yourself and rinse water is not hot enough to kill bacteria anyway.

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The study was published in the Journal of Food Protection.

Source-ANI