There’s a kitchen ritual that feels so right, passed down through generations like a family recipe. You bring home that package of chicken, unwrap it, and immediately rinse it under running water. Clean meat, clean meal, right? Honestly, it makes perfect sense. We wash our vegetables, we scrub our cutting boards, we wipe down counters until they shine.
Here’s the thing, though. The USDA’s own research demonstrates that washing raw poultry before cooking is not recommended because bacteria in raw meat and poultry juices can be spread to other foods, utensils, and surfaces. This isn’t just outdated advice your grandmother might have ignored. It’s hard to say for sure, but this practice could be putting your entire family at risk every single time you prepare dinner.
The Invisible Bacterial Shower You’re Creating
When you wash chicken, water droplets can spray up to 80 centimeters from your sink, which is roughly about an arm’s length in every direction. Think about what’s sitting within that radius. Your clean dish drying rack. That salad you just prepared. The countertop where you’re about to slice bread. The USDA research shows bacteria on raw chicken, like salmonella, ride misting water droplets out from the sink in a process known as aerosolization, splattering the food-prep area in a two to three foot radius.
Scientific studies using high-speed imaging have actually captured this microscopic horror show in action. Researchers found that increasing faucet height leads to a flow instability that can increase splashing, and splashing from soft materials such as chicken can create a divot in the surface, leading to splashing under flow conditions that would not splash on a curved, hard surface. The soft texture of chicken meat essentially turns your sink into a bacteria distribution system.
The Shocking Statistics From a USDA Observational Study
A groundbreaking 2019 study from the USDA reveals that individuals are putting themselves at risk of illness when they wash or rinse raw poultry. The results should make anyone reconsider their chicken prep routine. Among participants who washed their raw poultry, roughly 60 percent had bacteria in their sink after washing or rinsing the poultry, and even more concerning is that 14 percent still had bacteria in their sinks after they attempted to clean the sink.
Let’s be real: if you think a quick wipe-down after rinsing chicken makes everything safe, think again. The study found that 26 percent of participants that washed raw poultry transferred bacteria from that raw poultry to their ready to eat salad lettuce. That’s more than one in four people accidentally contaminating food that would never be cooked, essentially creating a direct pathway for foodborne illness. A separate Drexel University survey found that approximately 90 percent of Americans wash their chicken, which means this problem affects the vast majority of home kitchens across the country.
Why Washing Chicken Doesn’t Remove Bacteria Anyway
Some bacteria are so tightly attached to chicken that you could not remove them no matter how many times you washed. People often try to rinse chicken with water, vinegar, or even lemon juice, believing these methods will kill germs. Washing, rinsing, or brining meat and poultry in salt water, vinegar or lemon juice does not destroy bacteria. It’s a comforting myth, nothing more.
The bacteria we’re worried about aren’t just sitting on the surface like dust on a shelf. Bacteria associated with chicken are Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli. These pathogens live throughout the meat, embedded in the tissue. Cooking to the right temperature kills germs on meat and poultry, so washing these products is risky and not necessary for safety. That’s the only method that actually works.
The Staggering Public Health Cost
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that millions of Americans are sickened with foodborne illnesses each year, resulting in roughly 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Chicken plays a major role in those numbers. According to the CDC, Salmonella traced to chicken caused eight outbreaks, 307 illnesses, 42 hospitalizations, and one death in the United States in 2016 alone.
Salmonella found on poultry products contributes to 93 million cases of foodborne illness each year. These aren’t just statistics on a page. They represent real people who got sick, real families disrupted, real medical bills piling up. A July 2024 outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes made at least 61 people in 19 states sick and had caused 10 deaths as of November 21, 2024. I know it sounds crazy, but a simple change in how we handle chicken could prevent countless illnesses.
The Cross-Contamination Crisis Beyond the Sink
Cross-contamination doesn’t stop at splashing water. Recent research from North Carolina State University identified that hands are the suspected cross-contamination culprit. Among those washing the chicken to rinse off bacteria, 26 percent of those in the control group and 30 percent in the educated group contaminated the salad by not washing their hands after handling the chicken.
Interestingly, even people who didn’t wash their chicken still contaminated their food. Among participants that did not wash their raw poultry, 31 percent still managed to get bacteria from the raw poultry onto their salad lettuce, likely due to a lack of effective handwashing and contamination of the sink and utensils. The message here is clear: whether you wash chicken or not, proper hand hygiene and surface sanitization matter enormously. Recent safefood research found that 80 percent of people didn’t wash their hands thoroughly after handling raw mince, and 84 percent didn’t thoroughly wash their hands after handling raw chicken.
The Proper Way to Handle Raw Chicken
If you’ve been washing chicken for years and feel lost without that step, here’s what to do instead. If there is anything on your raw poultry that you want to remove, pat the area with a damp paper towel and immediately wash your hands. This method removes any visible debris without creating that dangerous bacterial spray. Patting the chicken dry with paper towels is a better practice food safety wise and also cooking wise, as a dry surface on the chicken promotes better browning which translates to wonderful flavor.
Significantly decrease your risk by preparing foods that will not be cooked, such as vegetables and salads, before handling and preparing raw meat and poultry. This simple sequence change prevents contamination of ready-to-eat foods. Use separate cutting boards, knives, and plates for raw chicken. Thoroughly clean and sanitize any surface that has potentially touched or been contaminated from raw meat and poultry, or their juices.
The Only Method That Actually Kills Bacteria
Cook all poultry to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s the magic number. Not 160, not 170 because you want to be extra safe. Exactly 165 degrees measured with a food thermometer. Cooking chicken to 165 degrees Fahrenheit using a food thermometer will kill any dangerous bacteria and make it safe to eat.
Using a food thermometer is the only sure way of knowing if your food has reached a high enough temperature to destroy germs, including foodborne illness-causing bacteria. You cannot judge doneness by looking at the color of the meat or checking if the juices run clear. These old-school methods simply aren’t reliable. Insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken, avoiding bones, and wait until it reads 165 degrees consistently.
