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Should You Wash Raw Chicken Before You Cook It?
The debate has plagued both home and professional cooks for decades: Should we be washing poultry before cooking it? It’s covered in slime and bacteria that should be removed, right?
Well, according to both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the answer is a clear and resounding no.
Both agencies mention the potential spread of campylobacter and salmonella ― bacteria found in raw chicken and turkey that are known to cause food poisoning ― as primary reasons not to rinse poultry.
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“During washing, chicken juices can spread in the kitchen and contaminate other foods, utensils and countertops,” reads the official CDC guidelines. In a semi-ironic twist, folks rinse chicken in an effort to get rid of the bacteria, but in doing so they end up spreading the unwanted organisms more widely.
“Some of the bacteria are so tightly attached that you could not remove them no matter how many times you washed,” the USDA points out.
By placing our meats under a faucet and turning on the water, experts say, we’re causing the splattering and cross-contamination that we’re looking to avoid in the first place.
A dive into the CDC and USDA recommendations shows there has been relatively little research that confirms rinsing poultry will cause cross-contamination.
The USDA cites a 2019 study that found 60% of people who washed raw poultry had bacteria in their sink afterward, and 14% still had sink bacteria after they cleaned the sink. It would seem to follow that washing germs off a chicken is a...
