A recent report released by the Food Safety Information Council (FSIC) showed that 60% of home cooks in Australia are putting themselves and their loved ones at risk by washing whole poultry before cooking.
The danger comes from bacteria spreading around the kitchen causing cross-contamination of other food and non-food items.
The survey found that 6 out of 10 people wash whole chickens, 5 out of 10 wash chicken pieces with skin on, and 4 out of 10 wash skinless chicken pieces.
Recent investigations doing that 84% of raw chicken carcasses tested positive to the food poisoning bacteria Campylobacter and 22% to Salmonella. Notified cases of food poisoning from these bacteria have almost doubled over the last 20 years, with an average of 220,000 reported per year in recent years. From those incidents, around 25% can be attributed to the person eating chicken meat.
FSIC released some tips for preparing poultry safely. They recommend the following: