Now, a new anti-chicken-washing crusade is sweeping the Internet, thanks in part to Jennifer Quinlan, PhD, a food safety researcher and associate professor at Drexel University. Her new video campaign called “Don’t Wash Your Chicken!” shattered everything we thought we knew about poultry prep. Prevention’s Mandy Oaklander: When I saw your “don’t wash your chicken” message, I have to say I was delighted. It cuts out a step, and you almost don’t have to touch it now. Dr. Jennifer Quinlan: I know! One of my vegetarian colleagues was joking that she’s going to start eating chicken again just so she can not wash it. MO: So when did it come to your attention that people were bathing their birds? JQ: The USDA recommendation is not to wash raw chicken, but in our focus groups, we were hearing over and over again that people wash their chicken. In fact, 80-90% of all consumers, minority or not, were telling us they washed their chicken. MO: Do people think it’s gross that you’re saying not to wash chicken? JQ: It’s really mixed, I won’t kid you. Some people are happy not to do it, since it lets them skip a step. Others say, “I always did it, I’m always going to do it.” If you feel strongly that you’re getting rid of something that you’re going to taste, you might not be as likely to follow the “don’t wash” advice. MO: Are people getting sick from chicken-washing? JQ: Unfortunately, we rarely know a direct cause and effect with foodborne illness. What we do know is that raw poultry is pretty commonly contaminated with both salmonella and campylobacter, and these two pathogens are the leading causes for foodborne illness. It’s thought that cross-contamination probably plays a role in illness from these bacteria. MO: I assume you should still wash your cutting board—how should you clean it? JQ: Try to designate a cutting board that you always use for raw meat and poultry. The best thing to do is to put that cutting board into the dishwasher and run a hot cycle. Alternatively, hot water and soap work as well. Sponges carry a lot of bacteria, so we tell people that they should microwave it or throw it in the dishwasher regularly. MO: I don’t have a dishwasher or a microwave. How screwed am I? JQ: Wow. Wow. That’s interesting. We actually see that with low-income populations a lot. You want to be using paper towels, things that are disposable, with hot soapy water instead of sponges. MO: What else shouldn’t you wash? JQ: There’s no need to wash pork. There’s really no need to wash any raw meat, poultry, or even fish. I’ve gotten that question even from my colleagues and faculty. Washing is not an effective way to get rid of bacteria, that’s the bottom line. Pork is another one with a lot of pathogens. We didn’t address it, but our survey found that almost as many people wash pork as wash poultry. I don’t know many people who wash red meat. People don’t have the tendency to feel like they have to wash it, but for some reason they do with poultry. MO: People love washing slimy fish, though! JQ: My feeling is that if it’s smelly and slimy, it’s too old anyway. If you feel like you’re washing something off of your fish, maybe it’s too old to eat! MO: What other weird trends did you find? JQ: We saw an interesting trend with African-Americans of cooking their turkey overnight. In and of itself that’s not unsafe, depending on how you handle it. We see that Asian stores often don’t refrigerate eggs in retail, even if they come in big “Keep Refrigerated” boxes. When we talk to Asian consumers, they don’t see the need to refrigerate eggs. They do it less than other populations. Another area I think we need to pay more attention to is food safety risks for the elderly. You and I might just get sick from salmonella, but the elderly are the ones who are likely to end up hospitalized or die from a salmonella infection, simply because the elderly are more susceptible to the severe effects of food-borne illness. There’s a recommendation that anyone over 65 should not eat lunchmeat without reheating it. You tell that to people who are 65 and above, and they’ll laugh at you. That’s just not a message we’ve really gotten out there. Fortunately, the bacteria on lunchmeat that causes illness is not that common, so people still eat a lot of lunchmeat and are ok. But when there are outbreaks, it’s the elderly who suffer the greatest consequences. MO: Are there other USDA recommendations out there that aren’t common knowledge, or that we blatantly disregard? JQ: Thermometer usage. A decade or two ago, USDA developed multiple campaigns—one of them was called Thermy, this cartoonish thermometer. Thermometers address the same types of meat and poultry issues. We know there are pathogens on these things—you need to make sure that you’re cooking them to the right temperature. More and more people have thermometers now than they did 15-20 years ago. Some people actually use them. MO: Ok, so how do you use a food thermometer? JQ: You want to stick it into the thickest part of the steak or sausage or chicken. You don’t just want the tip in, you want an inch or two, and you need to hold it there for a minute or two. MO: Since everything we know about food washing is wrong, are we off the hook in terms of washing our vegetables? JQ: Vegetable washing is more for chemical or pesticide residue than bacteria. There might be some dirt on them, they’re transported and touched. So vegetable washing is recommended. We tell people to wash their vegetables, but then we tell them not to wash their chicken. That may be part of some of the confusion. More from Prevention: Is Your Kitchen Making You Sick?
