Wash or Not to wash Raw Chicken (restaurants, meals, vegetable)

[NewbieHere]

I wash them but I always wear gloves and I always do the lettuce ahead, so no splashing to food eat raw. Then my husband also wash the sink with soap.

[Zoisite]

The only raw foods that I usually don't wash are ground meats and whole red meats. When I select red meats at the store I try to always select cuts that don't have any visible bone dust and tiny bone shards embedded in it after being cut by the meat/bone saw. If I get it home and find there is bone dust/shards or slime on it (usually found on the underside) then yes, I will quickly rinse and scrub it in cold water to get rid of that stuff and then immediately blot it dry to prevent loss of blood.

Absolutely everything else, that's including ANY species of birds, all fresh fish or shellfish, sausage in casing, gets washed and trimmed to remove residues, blood clots, fat globules or slime and to rinse away any remaining smell of ammonia that the butchers spray onto the meats that they cut and package in the store. I won't ever buy fresh meat from any store that has a strong smell of ammonia coming from the meat department.

I also scrub eggshells clean under running water before either boiling them or breaking them open, and likewise I clean all fresh fruits and vegetables before prepping them.

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[LilyMae521]

I'm with Zoisite on this one. Ain't nothing getting in my kitchen unless it makes a stop at the sink first. And I don't mean a lick and a promise... I mean a good conscientious scrub.

[NewbieHere]

One time I didn’t wash something, I had stomach problem. So I don’t care what people say. I’m washing mine.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by Pilot1

Yes, "cooking" the chicken will kill the bacteria but I still rinse my chicken anyway. Takes two seconds.

Rinsing isn't killing anything.

[Zoisite]

Originally Posted by TabulaRasa

Rinsing isn't killing anything.

That's okay. Rinsing it is still helpful in cleaning off dirt, sand, feces, slime, bone, feathers, hair and other debris and tiny creeping critters and critter eggs that can be on it. There's nothing wrong about being civilized and eating clean food that has no unpalatable substances on it.

I really hate biting down and breaking a tooth on tiny pieces of rock or bone that weren't rinsed off.

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[Larry Caldwell]

The chicken was thoroughly hosed when it went through the processing plant. It won't hurt to do it again.

[5-all]

I've almost always rinsed chicken to remove the blood and other gunk that sometimes clings to it. I wear disposable gloves when handling most meats. Keep the sink clean, etc. Never got sick from chicken. I'm 65.

[Wartrace]

I always wash (rinse) chicken with skin on it. I've done it both ways and it seems to taste a little better to me than unwashed. To each his own.

[tamiznluv]

Yikes, the way some describe the condition of their chicken (and other meat), before cooking, makes me want to barf!!! Hearing about "scrubbing" steak, I assume pork too, just leaves me agog! So interesting to see other's habits.