American Chicken

[Butters]

A question for the Americans among us, though I’ll begin by saying, that the last thing I want to discuss over the internet is Brexit. There’s a million other places to do that and I avoid them all.

That said, there’s something I’ve been wondering about. Whenever i cook chicken, I, and everyone I know too, handles raw chicken like it’s carcinogenic. We don’t mix fresh and raw cutting surfaces, we wash hands after touching it, we hold the kids at arms length when raw chicken is about, we don’t wash it fur the risk of contamination, and we all have multiple horrid stories about that time a piece of under cooked chicken gave us the shits.

It’s come to my attention, lots of times, that chicken in the USA is treated with chlorine to kill most of the nasty bacteria, and I’d just like to hear some first hand accounts of chicken, and the American attitude to raw chicken.

Can the chlorine be tasted? Does chicken come with food hygiene warnings? Do you just treat it like any other meat?

 

[Admiral2]

We treat it mostly like any other meat, though i was taught you had to wash poultry before preparing it (just by running water over it really), and companies selling counter cleaning products would have you act like chicken carries the plague. No, you can't taste the chlorine, or anything else untoward if its a) fresh and b) cooked thoroughly.

That's my experience, anyway.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

American Chicken, stay away from me
American Chicken, cluckin’ let me be
Don't come a-hangin' round my kitchen door
I don't wanna see your feathers no more
I got more important things to do
Than spend my time eatin' undercooked you
Free range chicken, I said stay away
American Chicken, listen what I say

 

[Butters]

We treat it mostly like any other meat, though i was taught you had to wash poultry before preparing it (just by running water over it really), and companies selling counter cleaning products would have you act like chicken carries the plague. No, you can't taste the chlorine, or anything else untoward if its a) fresh and b) cooked thoroughly.

That's my experience, anyway.

I don’t remember ever being advised to wash chicken, but it makes sense I suppose. But chicken now has warning stickers telling us not to wash it.

 

[Admiral2]

I don’t remember ever being advised to wash chicken, but it makes sense I suppose. But chicken now has warning stickers telling us not to wash it.

Really? I've never seen a sticker like that on any chicken I've bought...though I don't pay much attention to the package before I claw it open...

 

[Butters]

Really? I've never seen a sticker like that on any chicken I've bought...though I don't pay much attention to the package before I claw it open...

Supermarket chicken definitely, the butcher just chucks it in a bag.

https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/never-wash-raw-chicken/

https://www.food.gov.uk/safety-hygiene/campylobacter

 

[Marynator]

You should be careful about washing chicken or turkey, because water won't do anything to salmonella, but you could spray any germs from your poultry all over the place. Chicken is my meat I'm most careful with when I'm preparing it, and I do use a separate cutting board and everything and I definitely won't mix it with my vegetables, bread, or cheese, but I'm also not ridiculously paranoid either, just basic sanitary practice, you know?

I just make sure I wash my hands, my knife, and my cutting board well after handling raw chicken.

 

[Kor]

A question for the Americans among us, though I’ll begin by saying, that the last thing I want to discuss over the internet is Brexit. There’s a million other places to do that and I avoid them all.

That said, there’s something I’ve been wondering about. Whenever i cook chicken, I, and everyone I know too, handles raw chicken like it’s carcinogenic. We don’t mix fresh and raw cutting surfaces, we wash hands after touching it, we hold the kids at arms length when raw chicken is about, we don’t wash it fur the risk of contamination, and we all have multiple horrid stories about that time a piece of under cooked chicken gave us the shits.

It’s come to my attention, lots of times, that chicken in the USA is treated with chlorine to kill most of the nasty bacteria, and I’d just like to hear some first hand accounts of chicken, and the American attitude to raw chicken.

Can the chlorine be tasted? Does chicken come with food hygiene warnings? Do you just treat it like any other meat?

I never really thought about this before, so I guess the taste isn't discernible. I still treat raw chicken like the plague.

Here's an article I just found on this topic: http://theconversation.com/chlorine...ains-why-us-poultry-is-banned-in-the-eu-81921

An interesting excerpt:

US chicken has been banned in the EU since 1997 because of this chlorine washing process. But this isn’t because the treatment itself has been deemed dangerous. A report by the EU Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures, for example, highlighted that the chemical cleaning treatment can be effective at removing foodborne pathogens depending on how it is used. The real fear is that heavily soiled birds may not be sufficiently disinfected, and that relying on chlorine washing could lead to poorer hygiene standards overall.

Kor

 

[Refuge]

Chlorine ice baths and sprays are used in Australia processing too.

I only buy farm processed chicken. It may not be a perfect compromise but some of the practices in factory processing are cruel (in my opinion). I don't wish to preach so... the question of hygiene. Yes, always am super fussy with raw chicken. I rinse it first and go from there. Scrub the chopping board bring out more bleach for the boards. Funny but it's rice that is often a scary food when it comes to bacteria. The only food poisoning I've ever had was from rice in a takeaway brought over from family they had had the day before. It was reheated but I was a goner! So so so so sick. Eventually collapsed. Poor hubby had to pick me up off the floor.

 

[Kor]

As an aside, some time ago I was introduced to the Caribbean way of "cleaning" chicken meat, and I found it interesting. First you sprinkle salt on the chicken pieces, then you use lime wedges to scrub them. This seems to make it easier to take off any stray gristly bits. Then you rinse the meat with very hot water. I'm not sure if any of this truly "cleans" the meat in the sense of making it more sanitary, but the person who introduced me to this method felt that Americans don't clean their chicken sufficiently before cooking it.

Kor

 

[cosmic mouse]

I typically only eat organic chicken which may be treated with a chlorine rinse, but the amount cannot exceed 4ppm (which is far lower than most state-regulated swimming pools; e.g. the state I live in stipulates 5-10ppm for pools). Anything over 4ppm must then be rinsed with potable water not exceeding the chlorine levels in the public drinking water supply.

https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/Poultry - Guidelines.pdf

Maybe there is safer meat out there? I don't eat much meat anyhow...