Such a simple and innocent gesture as washing dishes cannot bring trouble, right? We’ve been told all our lives that we should rinse our food under powerful disinfectant action flow of water from the kitchen faucet. But what if it wasn’t always like this? What if some products weren’t made to splash water? That’s right, raw chicken is one of the foods crucified with water. The explanation lies in certain microbiological problems which we must not lose sight of.
Raw chicken may naturally contain some pathogens such as Campylobacter. How famous salmonella, Campylobacter This is a bacterium that causes diarrhea, abdominal pain, and lightning-fast toilet visits. Actually, Campylobacter considered a bacterium more cases of gastroenteritis causes worldwide. Namely, specific types Campylobacter most praised for its appearance in outbreaks and food poisoning. Campylobacter jejuni.
food poisoning due to Campylobacter it can become more complex than necessary and bring with it other more serious inconveniences. The infection caused by this bacterium is known as campylobacteriosis. Actually, for the WHO itself Campylobacter it’s not turkey slime: “Infections Campylobacter They are usually light but can be fatal to very young children, elderly and immunocompromised people worldwide. So, a little raw chicken joke.
Where is Campylobacter, let me see?
Like most pathogens, Campylobacter Has a wide distribution in nature. It can be found in raw milk, contaminated water, and vegetables grown on soils irrigated with such low-hygienic status water. However, this pathogenic bacterium is concentrated mainly in the intestines of birds such as chicken. It is not necessary for the animal to be sick, but on the contrary, this pathogen lives so peacefully inside healthy birds. Therefore, it is not surprising that Campylobacter to get to the poultry meat that we find in our supermarkets without much difficulty.
Before you go quick and quick to throw the Mercadona Raw Chicken Tray in the trash, you should know that no reason to worry. In other words, as long as we follow the minimum food hygiene precautions, we will have no cause for concern. These recommendations include hand washing with soap and water, which is very important to destabilize the membrane surrounding bacteria and viruses. send them to another area. If you wash your hands with just water, you won’t kill bed bugs. This is a complete asshole. Please use soap.
Cook enough and avoid cross-contamination
If we do not follow this premise, when we take raw chicken with our beautiful hands, and then we take kitchen utensils such as tongs, knives or forks, we will be transferred Campylobacter to these items. This is what is known as cross-contamination and is one of the major mistakes we make in our kitchens in terms of hygiene. Later, we will continue to process other products that will again receive the indicated microbial load.
Very often, the same cutting board is used for raw chicken and vegetables, such as tomatoes or lettuce, which serve as the base of the salad. This mistake will bring with it two bulletins for identifying food poisoning. Unforgivable, don’t do it. Use different boards for each purpose, or wash them well with soap and water in between.
Why do tomatoes and lettuce suffer worse from this? well, because they foods that can be eaten cold and not carry out heat treatment or subsequent firing, which is responsible for eliminating Campylobacter. Because yes, not only soapy water destroys this malignant bacteria: heat too. In particular, conventional cooking with 65-70ºC about 2-5 minutes should be enough to destroy Campylobacter. However, if we do not cook the chicken correctly in all its parts, it will not bring any benefit.
Make sure no part of the chicken is undercooked. It is common in wings or thighs, as it is larger and more expensive to cook uniformly. Especially if we cook them in a pan, where the direct contact area is the one that marks the cooking and bacterial calm.
How about washing chicken under the tap?
As they would say on the Madrid stage, a chicken goes a long way. What about running water under a faucet? We have not yet unraveled the original mystery that brought us here. Why is it not recommended to wash raw chicken at home?
The first, because it’s not necessary. In other words, if we buy packaged chicken from the supermarket, the food industry has already taken care of preparing, cutting and preparing it for cooking. The chicken does not need to be washed, it is better to put it directly into the pan. On the other hand, if we are talking about chicken that is prepared for us in a butcher’s or chicken shop – by the way, what a good term – we are in the same situation. They will already make sure that everything is ready, so when you get home, all you have to do is cook the chicken.
As we saw earlier, chicken can naturally contain Campylobacter without our ability to do anything to avoid it. Washing the chicken under the faucet won’t make a difference either. The only thing we’ll get is splatter all over our sink with pathogenic bacteria which can be in any corner of the kitchen. A real potential danger to our health, given that the direction and magnitude of the spray is unpredictable.
Solution? Never wash a chicken under a tap. You are not going to purify it and you will just find microbiological terrorism. Cook just the way you want, but just enough. Oh, and don’t even think about eating raw chicken. Now it is very fashionable in some preparations like carpaccio, but this is real nonsense. Now you know why. You may not live to see our next food article.
Source: Hiper Textual
