Do not wash raw chicken before cooking! this is the reason

You may be accustomed to washing every raw food ingredient before cooking. Washing fruits and vegetables is indeed the best way to rinse clean any residue of dirt and pesticides that may still be stuck. But did you know, it turns out that not all food ingredients can be washed before cooking? Washing raw chicken meat is actually dangerous for health. Why is that?

Washing raw chicken meat increases the risk of spreading the infection

There are many bacteria found in raw chicken meat. The bacteria that is usually found in chicken meat is Campylobacter, the main cause of gastrointestinal infections, such as diarrhea.

That's why in order not to catch diarrhea (or worse, food poisoning), you might think about washing it first before processing it. On the other hand, the germs and disease bacteria that are rinsed can actually move to other parts of the kitchen, nearby cooking utensils, and even land on your clothes.

The reason is, when you wash raw meat, without your realizing it, the washing water which incidentally transports bacteria from the meat will be splashed everywhere. Although the number of transferred bacteria may not be too much, it is still enough to make you susceptible to infection.

If not washed, how can the bacteria in chicken meat die?

You don't need to be afraid of poisoning if you don't wash raw chicken with water. If you cook the chicken properly, the bacteria and germs will stay away and die. Bacteria cannot live in high temperatures, so to kill all the germs on chicken meat, you only have to cook it at a minimum temperature of 75 degrees Celsius.

Not only how to cook, here are things you should pay attention to when cooking chicken so that it is not contaminated with bacteria and germs:

Do not defrost frozen chicken at room temperature. If the chicken is still frozen, then it's best to move the meat from the freezer to the bottom of the refrigerator. Make sure that the meat is tightly closed. Leaving the meat outdoors will only attract bacteria to grow on the meat.
Make sure that the cooking utensils are clean. Usually bacterial contamination is very easy to occur due to the use of unclean cooking utensils. Wash cooking utensils, such as knives and cutting boards after you use them to cut any food items. Otherwise, this will cause cross-contamination, which then keeps bacteria from sticking to your food.