Don't wash your chicken

"meat or chicken" ? Chicken is meat. So is fish.

One doesn't have to worry about germs "all over" one's kitchen even if one does buy meat. One just has to know a bit about food hygiene and to be sensible.

Actually, Ana, it was one of the reasons I became vegetarian. I always hated preparing raw meat and poultry. I will still cook a bit of meat for my husband but I never prepare a whole chicken (or turkey). For this I am very thankful.

No, Charleygirl, you are right. Hot soapy water is best (it's just my extra careful, can't be too sure side that makes me buy Dettox).

I have never washed a chicken. I have enough things to wash without starting on flamin' chickens.

My son, a committed vegetarian, contracted campylobacter. It was thought that fridge hygiene in a pub where he had eaten was not up to standard, and that salad ingredients had come into contact with raw meat. Although he was ill, fortunately he wasn't permanently affected.

Not really a reason to become one though, is it?

I'm sure I typed "its". Grrrrr....

Being a vegetarian has it's advantages!

Because you like to dice with death Ana

Darn! Why didn't I think of that...?

I find it much easier not to buy meat or chicken. Then you will not need to worry about whether the germs are all over your kitchen worktops!

I have never bought bleach or anything antibacterial in my life. Hot soapy water is sufficient to clean a kitchen and this is me with my (ex) professional hat on. I am hiding under the table, waiting for the onslaught.

I don't wash chickens and also remove the elastic - love the idea that they look uncomfortable! I always, when I have finished in the kitchen for the evening, put the dishcloths in a sinkful of hot soapy water with bleach in. I am not fanatical about hygiene, but I am very careful about the storage and cooking of food. When I was 16, 50 years ago, my dad almost died from a bug in a pork pie he bought and ate at Woolworths. He was in Monsall isolation hospital (NW GNers may remember this) for almost 5 months and was very seriously ill. When something like this happens to a family member, it does make you more cautious. If in doubt, chuck it out is my motto.

I'd rather be safe than sorry - it requires no effort; less in fact than washing a chicken. Little ones are vulnerable to these sorts of food poisoning bugs; and when working in hospitals, we had grown adults who died of it.

I must admit I use a lot of paper towels!

J-cloths can be thrown away, so they don't need any sterilising at all.

Paper towels sprayed with Cif Antibacterial (only needs 5 minutes to do its job) and wipe taps and limited surrounding area (just to be on the safe side) down with that and chuck the paper in the bin.

I never did see the point of contaminating half the kitchen

But how would anyone manage to 'contaminate half the kitchen^?

If it's that lethal, why is it being sold to the public for consumption? If I hadn't got decades behind me of not being struck down with illness after washing possibly hundreds of chickens, I'd probably be too scared to eat the stuff!

J-cloths can be thrown away, so they don't need any sterilising at all.

Dishcloths and washing up sponges can be sterilized in the microwave. Make sure they are wet, and only give a few seconds, otherwise they could burn!
A bottle of bleach lasts me a year or two!

I never wash poultry before cooking - even if there are no splashes from the tap, you have to touch the taps, and the bugs spread through the sink as you wash the meat. I have a covered roaster and put the bagged chicken in the lid, remove the wrapper and leave it in the the lid, transfer chicken to other side, tip bag into bin from the lid without touching it and then put it all in hot oven. I never did see the point of contaminating half the kitchen when you can just bung it in the oven and wash your hands.

I often wonder how we have survived to our present advanced age. I even marvel how I have not yet bumped off DH who since his transplant has a compromised immune system. He even survived a dose of campylobacter (we think) picked up in a Turkish restaurant in Belsize Park. Other than not eating "pink" chicken I fear I rely on common sense plus perhaps good luck! Other than issues relating to his complicated medical issues we are rarely ill so it can't all be bad!

Exactly, hollyd. It really is only a case of might splash unwanted germs about your kitchen. It's not a certainty.

You and your blimmin' bleach, jess! Shared a house with a hygieniac when I was a student. She drove the rest of us mad with her germ theories, especially as she was always catching a 'bug' and the rest of us were never ill. We were ordinarily clean and careful about germs; she was obsessive. It didn't seem to gain her anything.

I'm sure it's possible to wash chicken without causing problems if anyone should be so inclined. I don't.

Read the thread title as "don't wash your children" and wondered why.

Ana - we are not fit to run our households

Good heavens!!! Why haven't me and mine been struck down by some deadly virus by now? Several tea towels and dishcloths a day....? Sounds a bit OTT to me