The washing is to get any residual poop off the chicken. If the chicken was rinsed in chlorinated water, running water over it for a few seconds won’t do anything.
Several years ago protocol was changed to not wash chicken because it was found the water splashing was more dangerous than sticking the chicken in the oven to kill any pathogens.
Never had to wash a chicken breast in my life, but, the FDA allows for a chemical rinse, but does not require it. I buy smaller, higher quality chicken breasts because they taste better compared to the bloated, plumped, and cheaper packs, so the chicken I buy may not get this chemical process.
That being said, there is no shortage of sanitization steps in packaged products that will leave residue on food. I’m more concerned that the FDA allows the chemical bath to make up for the shortcomings in animal welfare at production facilities that leads to contaminated chicken in the first place. That bothers me more than a small amount of chlorine on the meat.
It was a thing until recently when it was found washing is more likely to spread disease from splashing than just sticking it in the oven to kill everything.
Can you define “recently”? I’ve been cooking for ~20 years now, and I also took a food-and-nutrition class in highschool which had a pretty significant unit on food safety and cross contamination. I’m confident saying that washing chicken was not the norm at least as far back as 2006.
That’s not a thing most Americans do, just an fyi.
It’s not, but only because doing so causes even more problems, even though there’s reason to do it
Maybe I’m out of the loop here, but can people safely eat raw chicken in Europe?
You have to cook chicken in the US. I kinda figured that was a global thing.
Yeah you have to cook chicken everywhere, people wash the raw chicken in the US because of the chemicals the meat has been soaked in
No, we really don’t.
Also most of the chickens have just been simply brined. The only “chemical” you find in there is sodium chloride.
> people wash the raw chicken in the US
No they do not
The washing is to get any residual poop off the chicken. If the chicken was rinsed in chlorinated water, running water over it for a few seconds won’t do anything.
Several years ago protocol was changed to not wash chicken because it was found the water splashing was more dangerous than sticking the chicken in the oven to kill any pathogens.
Never had to wash a chicken breast in my life, but, the FDA allows for a chemical rinse, but does not require it. I buy smaller, higher quality chicken breasts because they taste better compared to the bloated, plumped, and cheaper packs, so the chicken I buy may not get this chemical process.
That being said, there is no shortage of sanitization steps in packaged products that will leave residue on food. I’m more concerned that the FDA allows the chemical bath to make up for the shortcomings in animal welfare at production facilities that leads to contaminated chicken in the first place. That bothers me more than a small amount of chlorine on the meat.
The only thing that leads someone to thinking this is true is brain damage
It was a thing until recently when it was found washing is more likely to spread disease from splashing than just sticking it in the oven to kill everything.
Can you define “recently”? I’ve been cooking for ~20 years now, and I also took a food-and-nutrition class in highschool which had a pretty significant unit on food safety and cross contamination. I’m confident saying that washing chicken was not the norm at least as far back as 2006.
Sorry, I’m old now so “recent” is messed up in my mind. Pretty sure I learned the change from Alton Brown Good Eats 1999.
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