Monday, November 30, 2009

Chicken Is Still Dangerous

Just in case you don't stop by Skippy's place or by Cookie Jill's place, Cookie Jill reminds us that, in spite of efforts to clean up the business, raw chicken is still a dangerous thing. A recent survey by Consumer Reports found that while the situation has improved very slightly, 66% of the chicken brought in grocery stores around the country harbor salmonella and/or campylobacter. The stats don't seem to be affected by the price of the bird either. High end/all natural products were as guilty as the cheap stuff.

This means that you can't relax on your kitchen hygiene when dealing with poultry. You must cook chicken/poultry to at least 165ยบ F internal temperature and prevent raw chicken or its juices from touching any other food. Use a separate cutting board for cutting poultry and it should be plastic so that you can run it through the dishwasher or wash it in very hot water with lots of soap. Use paper towels for your hands and not the dish towel and clean all surfaces with a sterilizing solution. (1 Tbsp chlorine bleach(sodium hypochlorite) with a quart of water).

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