Should raw chicken be washed before cooking? Experts say it's risky | ONESELF

You are about to make your favorite chicken breast recipe. All vegetables are washed and ready to use. Now it's time to prepare the birds, but wait, do you want to wash the chicken?

"Your first instinct is to rinse it off and get all the goo out," Keith Schneider, PhD , professor and microbiologist in food safety at the University of Florida , told SELF. But the gross side of raw chicken is cosmetic, as long as you plan to cook it right. "You just make it nicer by washing it," says Dr. Cutter.

In fact, washing your chicken can make you or your guests sick with a nasty foodborne illness . But don't feel alone about washing your poultry first: Nearly 70 percent of 1,504 respondents said they washed or rinsed poultry before cooking, according to a 2015 study published in the Journal of Food Protection ^.

Want to know why this common practice isn't a good idea? SELF asked food safety experts why you shouldn't wash your chicken.

So what's the safest way to cook chicken so as not to get sick?

The chicken is ready to cook right out of the box. You should focus on properly cooking the poultry as the heat will kill any remaining bacteria on your meat. "There's a reason we don't eat chicken and turkey sushi," says Dr. Cutter. Chicken and other poultry should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) . Although you might think you can tell when food is cooked through by its color or texture, the only way to know for sure is with a food thermometer.

To get an accurate reading, Christine Venema, EdD, associate professor of food safety at Michigan State University Extension , suggests placing the thermometer at the thickest part of a bird's chest, thigh, or leg. Don't touch the bone, which is a different temperature than the rest of the chicken.

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What Are the Health Risks of Washing Chicken Before Cooking?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), raw chicken (and other poultry or meat) can be contaminated with bacteria that can cause foodborne illnesses like campylobacter and salmonella . "When you hit the [raw] chicken with water, the water tends to bounce off the chicken and splatter all over the place," says Dr. Cutter. And that raw chicken water can splatter bacteria on anything nearby, like countertops, cooktops, and other foods ² (chills). Hello cross contamination.

"If you have a food product around, it can be contaminated with bacteria that will fly out of that sink," says Dr. Venema to SELF. The USDA estimates that water can throw bacteria-filled droplets up to three feet around your sink.

If you've washed your chicken for years without consequences, consider yourself lucky. However, if you continue to do so, you are at risk of food poisoning or viral gastroenteritis , which the CDC says can cause diarrhea, fever, stomach cramps, and vomiting, among other uncomfortable symptoms. People at higher risk of developing severe cases of foodborne illness, such as B. People with weakened immune systems or pregnant women should avoid washing raw chicken.

Washing chickens before cooking can only make sense if, say, you're on a farm and washing chickens outside of where you're preparing food, Londa Nwadike, PhD , assistant professor and extension of food safety. Specialist from Kansas State University , SELF is told. He grew up on a farm and remembers killing chickens to eat in his garden when he was younger. This may involve washing the feathers or blood off the meat. "But the chicken you buy in the supermarket has to be clean," says Dr. Nwadike.

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