More than a quarter of participants contaminated salad with raw poultry in a food safety study
In a review aimed at evaluating the affect of washing poultry on kitchen contamination, researchers located that extra than a quarter of research contributors contaminated salad with raw poultry – which include quite a few research individuals who did not wash the poultry. The examine highlights the value of hand-washing and cleansing and sanitizing the kitchen in purchase to cut down the threat of foodborne ailment when cooking at home.
Washing raw poultry is not recommended, because of to considerations about inadvertently contaminating other meals and surfaces – and growing the possibility of foodborne health issues.

We desired to know what impact an educational intervention would have on finding people to stop washing poultry before cooking, and what outcome any resulting improve in habits might have on decreasing contamination in the kitchen. We also required to get a much better plan of how, if at all, washing poultry really led to greater contamination in the kitchen area.”


Ellen Shumaker, corresponding creator of the examine and an extension associate at North Carolina Point out University

For the research, scientists recruited 300 dwelling cooks who said they washed poultry in advance of cooking it. The researchers sent foodstuff security information to 142 of the review individuals by way of electronic mail, outlining threat-reduction endeavours – including the recommendation to not wash raw poultry throughout meals preparing. The remaining 158 research individuals did not obtain the education and learning intervention.
All 300 analyze members have been then invited to exam kitchens outfitted with online video cameras that filmed meal planning. Contributors have been requested to cook hen thighs and get ready a salad. Soon after preparing the hen thighs, but prior to placing the chicken in the oven, members have been known as out of the kitchen to carry out a quick job interview. Participants had been then despatched back into the kitchen to prepare dinner the rooster thighs, get ready the salad, and thoroughly clean the kitchen area as they would at household.
What the review individuals did not know was that the rooster thighs ended up inoculated with a harmless strain of microorganisms, which the researchers would be capable to detect. This allowed researchers to swab surfaces in the kitchen area to see no matter whether any cross-contamination transpired for the duration of the foods planning and cooking course of action.
When analyze individuals remaining the kitchen to carry out the job interview, researchers swabbed the kitchen to detect any prospective contamination. This process was repeated following each and every participant had finished cooking the food and cleaned the kitchen. The geared up salad was also examined for feasible contamination.
Ninety-3 percent of the individuals who obtained the intervention did not clean the chicken, as as opposed to 39% of the contributors who did not receive the intervention.
On the other hand, the scientists ended up amazed to see that men and women who did clean the chicken and people who failed to clean the rooster experienced equivalent ranges of contamination from the uncooked chicken in their prepared salads.
So what offers?
“We assume the salad contamination stems from people accomplishing a inadequate task of washing their palms just after managing the uncooked rooster, and/or doing a very poor career of sanitizing the sink and bordering surfaces prior to rinsing or managing the salad,” Shumaker says.
“No matter of no matter if persons washed their hen, the kitchen area sinks became contaminated by the raw chicken, while there was somewhat minimal contamination of nearby counters,” Shumaker says. “This was a minor surprising, considering the fact that the typical knowledge experienced been that the chance related with washing hen was mainly because water would splash off of the hen and contaminate encompassing surfaces. As a substitute, the sink alone was turning into contaminated, even when the rooster was not remaining washed.
“Washing the chicken is even now not a great plan, but this analyze demonstrates the need to aim on blocking contamination of sinks and emphasizing the value of hand-washing and cleaning and sanitizing surfaces.”
Supply:
Journal reference:
Shumaker, E.T., et al. (2022) Observational Review of the Effects of a Foods Safety Intervention on Customer Poultry Washing. Journal of Foodstuff Protection. doi.org/10.4315/JFP-21-397.
