In many parts of the world, most people have the custom of washing raw chicken under running water before preparing it for consumption. However, although this seems to be harmless, or even more hygienic, this practice can be quite harmful, even affecting other foods or items in your kitchen. Check out the full article and understand why chicken should not be washed.
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Why not wash the chicken?
In raw chicken meat there may be the presence of salmonella, a bacteria known to cause serious stomach infections, and campylobacter, capable of causing even more serious problems. However, the chicken cooking process alone is enough to eliminate these two types of microorganisms from the food and avoid contamination through ingestion.
Also, the action of washing the chicken under running water can cause bacteria to spread. Thus, splashes can reach clean areas of the kitchen and contaminate utensils used in food preparation, in addition to infecting the sink.
The study tests
According to a recent survey, published in the Journal of Food Protection, scientists called 300 cooks to prepare a chicken salad. The researchers noticed that the salads of those who had washed the chicken had twice as much bacteria as the salads of those who had not washed the meat.
With this, scholars point to two hypotheses for this phenomenon. The first theory is that the cooks did not properly clean their hands after washing the raw chicken pieces and, as a result, contaminated the entire salad. The second suggestion is that infected droplets landed on surfaces and utensils that came into contact with the salad leaves.
The authors of the article stressed that, in addition to not washing the chicken before preparing it, people should correctly clean their hands and surfaces where the chicken had some type of contact. In addition, scientists still indicate using hot water to sanitize everything the raw piece of meat has touched. Already for the hands, the ideal is water and soap.
