Don"t wash chicken before cooking it, warns Meals Requirements Company

Chicken: defrost it, but don’t wash it. Photograph: Alamy

The government’s food watchdog has urged buyers to end washing chicken just before they cook it to keep away from contaminating their kitchen with Campylobacter – the most frequent kind of meals poisoning in the Uk – which can trigger death as nicely as serious well being troubles.

Study for the Foods Requirements Company reveals that a lot more than two-fifths of cooks say they routinely wash chicken as portion of their meals preparations. But the FSA has warned that splashed water droplets can spread Campylobacter bacteria on to human skin, function surfaces, clothing and cooking tools.

Campylobacter is accountable for most cases of meals poisoning, with about 280,000 people affected in the United kingdom every year, and four out of five situations are triggered by contaminated chicken. “Even though most situations end result in men and women suffering from stomach pain, serious diarrhoea and vomiting, some situations can lead to much more substantial wellness problems. In a lot more significant scenarios, it can lead to irritable bowel syndrome, reactive arthritis and Guillain-Barré syndrome, a significant issue of the nervous system. Whilst most circumstances result in men and women struggling from stomach pain, extreme diarrhoea and vomiting, some situations can lead to much more important overall health issues,” the Meals Requirements Company said.

“In much more serious scenarios, it can lead to irritable bowel syndrome, reactive arthritis and Guillain-Barré syndrome, a significant issue of the nervous technique. At its worst, it can destroy. Individuals most at danger are youngsters underneath five and older people.” The campaign is portion of Meals Safety Week.

FSA chief executive Catherine Brown stated: “Despite the fact that men and women tend to stick to suggested practice when managing poultry, such as washing hands following touching raw chicken and making confident it is thoroughly cooked, our analysis has located that washing raw chicken is also common practice,. That is why we’re calling on people to cease washing raw chicken and also raising awareness of the risks of contracting Campylobacter as a end result of cross-contamination.”

She stated Campylobacter was “a serious situation. Not only can it result in significant illness and death, but it costs the economy hundreds of hundreds of thousands of pounds a yr as a outcome of sickness absence and the burden on the NHS.”

Don"t wash chicken before cooking it, warns Meals Requirements Company