The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released information about handling raw chicken to avoid food poisoning. Raw chicken is often contaminated with pathogens such as Campylobacter, Salmonella, and Clostridium perfringens. About a million Americans get sick with food poisoning after eating improperly prepared chicken every year.
To prevent food poisoning from chicken, there are some things you can do. First, when you’re shopping, put any raw poultry in a disposable bag before placing it in your shopping cart. Refrigerate the poultry promptly when you get home. Wash your hands with warm soapy water for 20 seconds after handling raw chicken.
And never even rinse or wash raw chicken. The water can cause the bacteria on the chicken to aerosolize and spread it around your kitchen. The only way to get rid of pathogens on raw poultry is to cook it to 165°F
Make sure that you use a separate cutting board for raw poultry and other foods. Never put cooked food or raw produce on any surface that previously held raw chicken. And wash all cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and countertops with hot soapy water after working with raw chicken, before you move on to another food.
Be careful when microwaving raw chicken. That appliance doesn’t cook food evenly, so there could be cold spots in the poultry that never reach a safe final internal temperature. If you or someone in your family is in a high risk group for food poisoning complications, think about not using the microwave to prepare this food.
If you order chicken at a restaurant and you don’t think that it’s thoroughly cooked, send it back to the kitchen. Don’t be afraid to complain about it.
And refrigerate or freeze leftover chicken within 2 hours of cooking. This time changes to 1 hour when the ambient air temperature is above 90°F.
