Raw poultry and cross-contamination

Why

Raw poultry isn't sterile: it often carries Campylobacter and Salmonella bacteria – according to the US CDC, roughly 1 in 25 packs of chicken in US shops is contaminated with Salmonella, and according to the German BfR, Campylobacter is the most common bacterial cause of diarrhoea in Germany. A small number of bacteria is enough to make you ill, and they don't spoil the food, so you can't tell by look or smell. Rinsing under the tap doesn't remove them, it just spreads them in droplets over the sink, worktop, utensils and hands; the CDC and the BfR therefore advise against rinsing poultry, since only thorough cooking reliably destroys the bacteria. So the danger usually isn't the well-cooked chicken itself but whatever touched it raw: the board, knife, hands or plate that later meet salad vegetables or cooked meat.

How to do it

• Don't rinse chicken; lift it out of the pack with a fork or tongs straight into the pan or roasting tin, and pat a wet surface dry with kitchen paper you throw away at once.
• Keep a separate board and knife for raw poultry, apart from vegetables, bread and cooked food.
• After handling poultry, wash your hands with soap and water, and clean the board, knife and worktop with water as hot as possible and washing-up liquid.
• Store raw poultry covered on the bottom shelf of the fridge and thaw it in the fridge in a bowl so juices don't drip onto other food.
• Don't put cooked meat back on the plate or board where it lay raw.
• Change tea towels and cloths often and wash them at 60 °C or above.

If it goes wrong

If you cut salad vegetables on the board you used for raw chicken, it's safer to throw them away or cook them thoroughly. Wash the board and knife with hot water and washing-up liquid, and next time keep a separate board for raw meat, perhaps a different colour.