"How to Shop for, Handle, and Store Chicken"
In 2017, a study of more than
a thousand food poisoning outbreaks
determined that poultry,
specifically chicken,
was the most common culprit,
highlighting the role of poultry
as a major source of foodborne
outbreaks in the United States.
Fish was second;
beef was third.
But aren’t people more likely
to order their burgers rarer
than their chicken sandwich?
See, the biggest problem isn’t the cooking,
but the handling,
both at home and in the store.
A shop-along study was conducted
to determine actual shopping behavior
of consumers who purchased
raw poultry products.
What did they find?
Neither hand sanitizer or wipes
were observed in 71% of grocery store
meat sections of the stores visited.
And even when they were there,
only one participant
(out of the 96 they followed)
used it.
Therefore, it’s important to educate
shoppers on the importance of using
hand sanitizer in the meat section
after touching poultry packages,
because food poisoning bacteria
can get on the outside of the package.
Plastic bags were available
in most meat sections,
but only a quarter of the shoppers
used the bags for their raw
poultry purchases.
The shoppers just usually placed
the poultry directly in the main
basket of the grocery cart,
where it could come in contact
with fresh produce that may be
eaten raw in a salad or something.
And then, where does their hand go?
They didn’t use any kind of sanitizer,
and they then just grabbed
the handle of the cart.
Because they’re not practicing
good hand hygiene when handling poultry
in the grocery store meat section,
they could contaminate a variety
of items as a result of contact
with their hands.
Touching the cart after directly
handling the poultry packages
could potentially mean that the cart
becomes a risk factor for Salmonella or
Campylobacter for the next person.
The bacteria potentially left
on the cart could affect other shoppers,
not just the person picking up the poultry.
So, some kale shopper following
all the safety precautions can come
along and still be exposed to poultry
contamination via the cart.
In addition to touching the cart,
poultry shoppers may also touch
a personal item after touching
a raw poultry package.
A personal item like their children.
After touching poultry packages,
31% of shoppers touched a personal item,
like their purse, their child.
Most left the store with poultry
separated in its own bag;
however, most consumers then took it
out of this protective layer
when they got home.
And 1 in 3 placed the package
directly on the counter before
it went into the fridge.
And most were just put straight in,
where it could potentially come
in contact with other items.
Fewer than 1 in 5 consumers
correctly stored raw poultry
on the bottom shelf in a sealed
container or plastic bag.
Always in the bottom,
since if the raw juices leak,
they could contaminate other foods.
The next mistake most people make
is then washing or rinsing raw poultry
before cooking it.
Up to 90% of people say they wash
their chicken before cooking it,
because that’s what they’re used to,
and they want to “rinse the slime off.”
The problem is that the slime
can be splashed throughout like a
2-foot halo of contamination
around the sink.
A lot of folks heard you weren’t
supposed to do that,
but they continue to do it anyway.
Fewer than about 1 in 10 thaw frozen
poultry the way they should,
in a sealed container or plastic bag,
submerged it in cold water with
the water changed every 30 minutes.
Is it better to put raw poultry
on a wood cutting board or
a plastic cutting board?
Neither is safe, as they both
get rapidly contaminated.
Failure to then use a food thermometer
is another potentially unsafe practice,
given that 70% of chicken pieces
that were judged by consumers as
“done” had not reached safe
internal cooking temperatures.
In focus groups, many participants
thought food thermometers were unnecessary
to determine whether meat and poultry
were “cooked thoroughly,”
because they had been
“cooking for years without once
getting food poisoning.”
But had they ever got a 24-hour flu?
There’s no such thing as a 24-hour flu.
That’s likely food poisoning.
Stomach flu or stomach bug—
that’s likely food poisoning.
Ever have a urinary tract infection?
There are multiple lines of evidence
indicating poultry as a major food
animal reservoir for urinary tract
infection bacteria that lay and wait
in the rectum and then crawl up.
There are more than a million foodborne
Salmonella and Campylobacter infections
each year in the United States.
Although half of Americans think
it's “not very common” for people
in the United States to get
foodborne illness because of the
way food is prepared in their home
food safety experts estimate
that the home is the primary location
where foodborne disease outbreaks occur.