How bacteria ridden is raw chicken?
I love cooking and specifically love cooking with chicken. However, every time I cook with raw chicken I can't help but in my mind's eye seeing trillions of tiny bacteria spraying off the chicken like a pestilence fountain onto everything, waiting to make me sick at a moment's notice. I scour everything, hands included, after I'm done cooking.So; how difficult/easy is it to get sick from raw chicken? Is raw chicken as loaded with dangerous bacteria as I have been lead to believe? Does mere physical contact with raw chicken contaminate a surface?
Posted Feb 9, 2012, 6:54 AM UTC
11
It's not the number of bacteria alone, it's the number of bad bacteria. Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Clostridium are the big culprits for food poising on chicken. Their prevalence varies wildly depending on where you get your food, but studies show around 30-50% of chickens are contaminated with one or the other. The CDC estimates that one in six people in the US will contract food poisoning every year. So wash your hands and cook your chicken thoroughly.
There is good news, though. Unless you have AIDS, you have an amazingly effective immune system, particularly when it comes to contaminated food. All pathogens of your digestive tract require relatively high doses of bacteria in order to make it through your stomach and overcome your immune system in your gut. Most of the stuff you accidentally pick up won't do a thing. Even better, pathogens aren't very good at surviving on dry surfaces, like your kitchen counter. They die pretty quickly, and can be readily washed off. Lastly, even if you do get food poisoning, it's rarely a big deal if you're a healthy adult. Out of the 8.5 million cases in 2011, less than 0.01% required hospitalization - most of those are in people who already had something else going wrong. Usually you'll just have some fireworks and feel bad.
So, short answers because I'm long-winded.
1: Don't eat raw chicken. You'll get sick.
2: There's a pretty good chance it's loaded with dangerous bacteria
3: Physical contact does contaminate a surface for a short time. Wash your dishes and your hands.