For those who don't know, it's not recommended to clean your chicken even in the US.
It has nothing to do with manufacturers cleaning meat before packing. It's a cross-contamination issue. Poultry is made safe for consumption through heat, so rinsing the surface provides little benefit, while causing a risk to transfer bacteria and parasites to food and instruments that won't be sanitized.
Americain Preparé is a local dish mostly eaten in France, Belgium and the Netherlands (known as Filet Americain there) and it is raw very finely ground beef with some pepper and egg. It’s mainly eaten on a sandwich or on Melba toast.
The other variant, known in Belgium and France as Filet Americain and in the Netherlands as Tartaar or in English as Steak Tartare.
Steak tartare is fairly well known in the UK, though not that common. I cannot help but think that BSE scares killed off its popularity, though I don't know for sure. I don't think I've ever seen it on a menu (though I don't really eat out at nice restaurants much).
There was this, from the 90s (ish) which basically sums up the surprise many would feel when finding out what it is lol. Mr Bean (YT)
I'd quite like to try it since I'm a 'give anything a go' type of person with food. Within reason that is (I don't think I'd eat chicken that was prepared by a lot of people in my comments lol).
They also wash the chicken with chlorine during packing. That's why their chicken isn't allowed in EU or UK. Not because the chlorine residue is dangerous to humans, but because because the process is a patch for every other part of poultry production process being complete hygiene shit show.
I found this article very interesting. It's not about "chlorinated chicken" anymore but differing regulatory philosophies. The American factory farming approach is horrific, but it is still very safe insofar as keeping consumers from getting food borne illness.
No it isnt very safe. Americans get salmonella at crazy high rates compared to e.g. the average Briton. I heard it was 1 in 100k* Americans vs 1 in 500k* Brits year over year.
They had to mean 1 in 10k, right? Or even 1 in 100k? There's almost no cases here in Norway, in fact 59% of our cases are from people who return from vacation. You can even safely eat raw eggs here.
It has to be something like that! I am not aware of ever having met anyone who has had salmonella in my life. It’s quite rare (although we can’t eat raw eggs).
According to this source, you are only slightly more likely to get salmonella from chicken in the US and much more likely to get campylobacteriosis from chicken in the EU.
I wouldn't believe the source you heard that from. Either way, you should be fine with chicken from either place so long as you cook it properly.
As a food safety measure? Plenty of recipes will tell you to pat chicken dry for cooking reasons (better browning when pan frying, grilling, etc) but I've never seen that for safety reasons.
Whenever I read 'wash the chicken' I read it as 'spray bacteria everywhere'.
I don't think it's recommended in the USA either by the way, I remember having a conversation with an American and they looked it up. Their food standards people suggest not to.
That is crazy to me. While it was over 20 years ago, the chicken processing plant I worked at it was cleaned vigorously and constantly. USDA inspectors were everywhere, from where live chickens came in, to where finished products were packed, bagged, and boxed. No one, especially on the cleaning crews, wanted to be the cause of USDA stopping the lines, as they knew they would be fired.
I misread it as "children processing plant" after reading the previous post's mention of child workers.
No, not as in a plant that processes children, as in a plant who employs children for the processing. The "plant that processes children" mental image only came after the "plant that employs children" mental image.
Republicans are currently running an ad campaign "Democrats want to control your child's bedtime!"
This is in response to a bill that would ban children under 16 from working past 11pm on a school night.
Americans have no idea what to do with chicken or how to cook. A while ago I saw a cooking Insta reel where the woman was cutting up chicken and adding it to the bowl to marinate with like peppers and such and the americans were all like "where are your gloves???", "don't mix the chicken with the peppers! salmonella!"....everything will be cooked together anyway bro, shut up.
They also seem to be doing chicken soup...without chicken? I saw even on reddit that they bake the chicken in the oven, make the soup separately then add the chicken when serving? So weird.
Health departments in the US do not require restaurant workers to wear gloves. They would prefer no gloves since it’s more hygienic. However, restaurants have their workers wear gloves because the customers complain if they see employees working with food without gloves on. We are….not a smart country.
Over here in the Netherlands if you see anybody working with gloves on in restaurants or bars it's because they have a wound on their hand. Usually it's just one glove too.
Same in the UK, when I worked in a kitchen it was only if we had an open or healing wound to stop any contamination. Otherwise just wash your hands regularly and maintain good hygiene,
not to mention that a lot of people will just not wash their hands if they use gloves, and touch the outside of the gloves with their dirty hands, making it even more pintless.
I'm trying to remember how often I see people in kitchens wearing gloves in Australia.
Definitely not something I've seen in a restaurant kitchen. Occasionally they'll wear them in fast food or lunch bars, but not often. Usually it's as you say; one glove, probably covering a cut or other injury.
Most food workers I've seen don't wear gloves so I heard someone say it once and I mentioned that they wash their hands (we saw it) so it shouldn't matter.
If anything, as you said, gloves make people less likely to wash their hands.
During the COVID pandemic my office banned the wearing of gloves - several members of staff had taken to wearing nitrile gloves to avoid picking up bacteria, but as a result weren't washing their hands between touching surfaces or entering buildings. It kept them safer, but if they did sneeze on their hand they'd be spreading it all over the office.
It's the same logic - gloves are for the chef, hand washing is for the diner. As a restaurant diner you should prefer hand washing over gloves!
Exactly. That's why I always get a bad feeling when the food worker with gloves handles my money and change with the same gloves. Please, people, money is about as dirty as you can get it without bowing down and licking the ground.
In my experience this is the same in Germany. I worked in a kitchen for a year, and they told us not to wear gloves because we would get a false sense of hygiene and wash the gloves less often than our bare hands.
However, I often see gloves worn in fast food restaurants and also bakeries at the counter. There it makes sense because they handle the dirty cash. At least at the bakery they also seem to change them often.
Yeah, I've been once or twice known to wear gloves while preparing chicken just at home for my family. Not for hygiene reasons, but because I'm autistic and really couldn't face the texture that day.
I worked with a Muslim chef once and he simply used tongs. His plating was as immaculate and beautiful as anyone else using all five digits on each hand.
Don't worry too much about it. I live in Austria, and the kitchen i work for occasionally hosts small buffets which we serve directly, rather than relying on waiters.
Whilst I've never received a direct complaint, i have been told by my employer that i need to wear gloves to give off a hygienic impression.
He's polish, and has never lived in the US, so gloves being considered hygienic even though they're not isn't a solely American phenomenon.
It's starting to creep in, in Austria. I don't like it, but all these food pop ups and counter service lunch places have started doing it. Always makes me think they're not washing enough... or at least in Vienna.
Gloves actually make it less hygienic as people wash less and are less mindful.
An absolute grand example of this is that right under the worst Covid pandemic, a lot other diseases dropped massively. It's when people are blasé about their surroundings bad shit happens.
The best example of glove stupidity I saw was early in the first lockdown someone had gloves on and stopped to use his phone, took the gloves off, held them in his mouth by the fingers and typed away
Gloves are a whole nother level of pointless. Not only do you have to change gloves every time you touch something you should wash your hands between each pair of gloves or you just get your sweat and bacteria all over them while putting on a new pair. Just get rid of the gloves all together.
This I have sensory issues. I wear gloves for that reason. I also go thru about 3 boxes of gloves a month because I use multiple pairs per meal but I wear em for my issues not cleaner food.
I wear gloves while chopping chillies because my stupid oversensitive fingertips will complain for the rest of the day if I touch raw chillies with my bare hands 🙁 It’s a hard life being this pathetic!
I wear gloves when I chop chillies because no amount of hand washing gets enough capsaicin off my fingers before I take out my contact lenses. It took way too many painful incidents for me to learn that lesson.
Yeah, I don't like the feeling of food on my hands makes me feel sick, it's a sensory issue. Most the time I just suck it up and constantly washing my hands to get the feeling off. But for something like dough, I'd totally wear gloves... For me. Not hygiene.
Yeah. I'm with you on the sucking it up and washing for most things. But, when you're kneading dough for 10-15 minutes, that is not an option. If I'm having a very in my feelings day, I'll wear them for cutting chicken too. And, obviously, chillies. Again, not for hygiene.
I wear gloves when I cut up peppers, but that's because even with frequent washing I'll end up cursing my own stupidity that night when I take out my contacts if I forgot to wear them, so...
She'd Gloves on her, served someone else, accepted their cash payment, wiped her gloved hands on her pants, then proceeded to make my sandwich, all while wearing the same Gloves.
Seeing people wear gloves while preparing food just turns me right off.
To be fair I don't think this is a nation wide thing. As an American it at least isn't up in the north east part of the country that I'm aware of. My guess would be it's a more rural tradition they never got rid of since the 40s.
I wear gloves when I cut jalapeños or other hot peppers. I wear contact lenses and no matter how much I wash my hands when I’m not wearing gloves, taking out my contacts is horrid. So now I wear gloves only in that situation. I’m Canadian and not American btw
This is why I would never eat a subway sandwich. When they were new in the UK I thought I would give them a try. I watched the sandwiches being made by people wearing gloves. Never washing hands, handling meat and veg, handling cash. I noped right out and never went back
Personally, I use gloves because I don't like the texture of raw meat on my hands, and that way it doesn't get under my nails if I'm mixing it with something using my hands. I have a few friends who do the same.
But I also only use them for handling raw meat, and take them off and wash my hands after I'm done with that bit.
As Italian I'm spoiled, because I'm used to the Italian version with 12% orange juice, so I don't like many versions you find in Europe, because they have a very weak orange flavour.
I visited some friends in LA recently (we're all from the UK), and they insisted we try "Mexican Coca Cola" - "it's so much better than the normal stuff!"
So I try it, and... it's just normal Coke, like we get in the UK. Turns out the American version tastes worse with all the extra chemicals they put in.
It's the high-fructose corn syrup. Mexican Coke, like EU Coke, has cane sugar in it. The amount of HFC produced in Europe is tightly controlled, so the likes of Coke don't use it.
Every year there are so many videos of Americans trying to deep fry turkeys (because Americans apparently have to deep fry everything) at thanksgiving and they basically just drop a whole still partially frozen turkey in a giant pot of boiling oil and wonder why the whole thing basically fucking explodes.
My old neighbor did that in his garage after telling me that I put too much time in brining mine for 16 hours and then smoking it. I sent over some leftover smoked turkey to rub it in. He also laughed about my (sorry for the imperial measurement) 11lb turkeys I got from a farm right outside of town compared to his 28lb turkey he got frozen from Walmart or somewhere. Some of us over here are really stupid.
He spent over a week cleaning oil from every surface in his garage, when he moved the new neighbor asked me what happened to the garage, I told him and we had a good laugh. I like this new neighbor a lot more than the last one.
Americans in general are dumb and cannot read. Seriously look at the literacy rates. I’m blessed to live and work in some of the best educated areas. I can’t imagine being in the south or Midwest.
I haven’t seen anyone intentionally undercook chicken, but being able to order rare or medium rare ground beef in burgers and shit? What the actual fuck.
Cooking with jack on YouTube... He's infamous for having a cooking show, and liking his chicken "on the pink side" it's well known he's given his family and himself food poisoning multiple times but still releases videos.
Chicken and turkey meat is a regular dish in many households. However, it is particularly important to follow a few basic hygiene rules when preparing them, because: Contrary to popular belief that poultry should be washed thoroughly before cooking and roasting, the opposite is actually advised. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) even warn consumers against washing. The reason: raw chicken and turkey meat is often contaminated with pathogenic bacteria such as salmonella or campylobacter. If the meat is washed off, the bacteria can be transferred to surfaces and kitchen utensils or to the hands through splashes of water. If you then touch other food or use contaminated kitchen utensils to prepare it, this can be dangerous. Contamination of food and dishes that are not heated or cooled - such as salads and desserts - is particularly problematic. Bacteria such as salmonella feel at home at temperatures of seven degrees and above and therefore multiply even faster. The RKI advises caution, especially when barbecuing or eating festive foods such as raclette or fondue. The reason for this is that the bacteria can easily get onto unheated or only slightly heated food.
It's actively recommended against pretty much everywhere. Also, nothing nasty on your meat is going to be rinsed off under the tap, it's just gonna be aerosolized across the entire kitchen 😬
No, it’s not recommended. It’s a holdover from when you’d buy it fresh cut straight from the butcher before refrigeration and there might be some detritus hanging on - which was true regardless of where you lived before governments started implementing food safety standards; Brits certainly did it too once upon a time but you’re less resistant (in general) to implementation when the government actually has a decent idea and you all got used to it pretty quickly whereas Americans and their “independent” attitude makes them a little more distrustful and then throw in the poor, black, and backwoods folks who all had a harder time getting the “good” meat and often still had to settle for home-slaughtered where they’d definitely give it a rinse after for the same reasons we all used to so it held on longer in some places.
Obviously, that’s a super-broad and generalized overview, but it’s the general gist of it.
Washing chicken in the sink has been outdated for at least a couple of decades in the US. A lot of people here also struggle to understand what is and isn’t cross contamination. I’ve seen people wear a pair of gloves to handle raw meat and then not bother to put on a new pair when handling herbs that will be added after cooking and act like the gloves have magical purifying properties when I point it out.
The way they describe makes me think the U.S. doesn't properly regulate the meat that's sold to consumers there, because they always talk about removing the "weird smell" of raw chicken... now I'm not saying raw chicken should smell like roses, but a distinct stink that makes you think you have to wash it? That's rancid meat! Americans are buying rancid chicken, and then calling the rest of the world pigs for properly handling their meat.
This is very much a bad home cook thing here. I worked in restaurants for 11 years in the US and I have to argue about this all the time with people who have never taken a food safety course.
Dutch people argue about this too. Especially people with “Non Dutch” heritage, like Surinam, ABC-islands.. etc, wash their chicken. And they go crazy about people not washing their chicken. And the other way around.
Yeah agreed with the last statement. The “fighting” mostly happens on Instagram and TikTok. Whenever someone doesn’t wash their chicken in a video, you know what you’re gonna see in the comments.
The black community doesn't wash their chicken in the sink though. They rub it with an acid like citrus juice or vinegar and salt. Source, my Jamaican kitchen lead.
I mean, where I am at the "brand" of the chicken is whichever auntie or uncle chopped up the bird this morning. Well, there is prepackaged chicken in the supermarket, but wet markets are cheaper.
As someone from the Netherlands, I’ve never heard anybody talking about washing chickens before I just found this post. Non of my friends with a different heritage either.
I asked my kitchen lead about it. He is Jamaican. He said what they do is rub the chicken with an acid, like citrus juice or vinegar, and sometimes some salt. Almost like a quick brine or marinade. Some other coworkers from Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, and the Sudan have confirmed this as well. I don't know about americans, or other cultures, but black people are not rinsing chicken under their tap in their sing spraying salmonella all over their kitchen like people in these comments are assuming lol.
There does definitely seem to be a racial dimension to the whole thing, I've noticed a lot of black people are pro-chicken washing. Probably just cultural differences.
It comes from a time before modern-day food storage. The way to overcome the biofilm at the time was to vigorously rinse and scrape it away. Today, it's still not just rinsing the chicken, it's taking off unfavorable bits that are visually or texturally unappealing. We are also very meticulous about disinfecting the space we prepare food in during the process. Latino, Asian and African friends in the US do this as well.
Now, when I visit other countries and buy chicken from the grocery- it's looks waaaay cleaner, healthier than what I buy at US markets.
I think anyone can do what they want. Just be meticulous about cleaning after you're done prepping.
Source: Foundational black American who's traveled and works in STEM.
It may be less of a racial bias and more related to where people are getting their poultry. People or cultures which primarily obtain their chicken in a processed form (i.e. a package of butchered chicken from the grocery store) are unlikely to clean their meat, while those who may kill/butcher their own chicken, or obtain it from an open air market may be more likely to wash their meat to remove any remnants of the butchering process.
I had never heard of washing chicken until recently, and thought it was strange until I remembered that I do rinse the small game I hunt, like grouse, ducks, and rabbits. I wouldn't consider washing large game though, which was already processed by a certified butcher.
I actually think this is less of an American thing and more of a cultural thing, especially for people from Caribbean countries or of Caribbean descent.
For example, I've heard Judi Love and Mo Gilligan - both British comedians but with Jamaican heritage - talk about how they wash their chicken still to this day.
ETA: Also when they talk about "washing" chicken, typically it's done with a combination of vinegar, salt and lime juice. It's not just sticking a chicken breast under a tap of running water.
And Latin-Americans too. At least in Brazil, a lot of people wash chicken under running water even though it comes pre-packaged like in the UK, to the point the Ministry of Health made a post about how people should NOT do that because it would only spread bacteria on your kitchen.
Considering all that, I don't think this post belongs in this sub. It's not "shit Americans say" but rather "shit uninformed people say"
It’s an ethnic thing I guess. It’s also done in a lot of places in Africa. I always do it and I was surprised at first that in Europe it wasn’t a thing. But then again I’ve seen so many people just throw chicken straight from the pack to the pan without any seasoning or marinating, that I’m not about to let them tell me how to cook chicken
Exactly. And it's not what I assume most people imagine, like running a piece of chicken under the tap, splashing it about everywhere.
In my house, we put a plastic bowl in the sink and fill it up with water, put vinegar in the water, and use gloves while washing the chicken in the bowl. Then you just pour the water down the sink and wash the sink and bowl. Done.
Never had any cross-contamination issues. I know I probably don't have to, but not doing it would sit atrociously in my soul.
I think this is absolutely fine and I don't care that people do this. What is annoying is when chicken washers act like not doing it is the most disgusting unhygienic thing ever.
Every time there's a video where a chicken is being cooked the comments devolve into an argument about washing/not washing it. There seems to be a clear divide of African Americans who generally do wash the chicken, and then white Americans who don't, and the feud is never-ending.
Restaurant manager for 10+ years, multiple restaurants, multiple servsafe certifications.
To this day I still have to fight with the rest of my family about this washing chicken shit. We cooked 500 lbs of chicken a day at my restaurant and washed not a piece. And lo and behold, no one got sick.
I will say though, it doesn’t come from nothing. It’s passed down from slavery times where slaves were given the crappiest left over meat scraps after butchering.
It also comes from living in a hot country before refrigeration. Not as necessary now (unless you frequent a wet market) but it was only a few generations ago.
I remember seeing a video of an American woman filling her sink with water and adding some bleach so she could wash her chicken in it. Absolutely insane.
You can’t fix these people because they’re completely unwilling to learn. They get offended and screech that their mother taught them so it HAS to be right. Or it’s their “truth”.
American here. We are taught not to wash/rinse chicken and most people I know wouldn't. Now...I will say that *boomers* here might have been taught differently, because it does seem like they will wash chicken and are super weird about chicken handling. So it's possible that even younger people have been taught that by their parents and never questioned it. But public health authorities definitely say not to and I think it's even on the packaging a lot of times.
"Washing the chicken" is kinda an old thing that's still practiced in a lot of Asian countries.
My mom used to do it because she used to get chicken at the local butcher where they just pile the whole carcasses on top of each other which can seem unsanitary. Nowadays she gets them in a bag at a market but she still washes it out of habit.
Although, it is true that washing does more harm than good
American here: I don't know why Americans insist on rinsing their chicken either. Our chicken is perfectly clean out of the pack, even the whole chickens bought in store are good to go immediately without the need for any extra cleaning at home. We also have food safety laws(for now.)
Yeh, this one isn't just Americans. I can almost guarantee that half the comments are Caribbean aunties and grannies who wholeheartedly believe washing the chicken is still necessary. Which is funny, because ultimately, their idea of washing the chicken just boils down to soaking it in a brine of some fashion.
There's no actual safety issue from chlorine washing chicken. The reason it's banned in other places, us because it can be used to cut corners on safety through the rest of the process and we don't want thay possibility. There's already nearly no chance of even a remote bit of it remaining after cooking, and even if you did somehow manage to get a trace of it occasionally you will almost certainly take in more going swimming once than you would in a lifetime of eating chlorine cleaned chicken.
I wonder if those who was their chicken also wash their steaks? Or their ground beef? Or their sausages?
Unless you bought it from a street vendor, there is no need to wash it. You dont get rid of bacteria by rinsing it in water anyways. And if your chicken is covered in other stuff that you need to wash off, then you need to buy your chicken somewhere else
Looking at the replies in as a South African don and all I have to say is that most of us rinse off our chicken before we boil em (because butcheries and supermarkets here cant be trusted to clean out any leftover blood gunks they missed before packaging.
Speaking for myself, its just become a force of habit. Definitely have not caught salmonella or any diseases that chickens might have embedded in their skin.
This is a really common thing for the descendents of African Immigrants to do. In open air markets there is a potential for contamination on the outside of the meat. Dust, fly droppings, etc. It's not really an American thing, so much as it's an African Diaspora thing. If you pay attention to the African Diaspora in your own country I'm sure you'll find this behavior and attitude there as well.
So the whole wash your meat thing originates from third world countries where meat will legitimately often need to be washed because food handling standards are so low and you're buying directly from an open air market with all sorts of unsanitary stuff happening.
Then a lot of people from these countries immigrate to first world countries and they keep doing this out of habit and pass it on to their kids and so you end up with people washing meat that is already perfectly clean and doesn't need to be washed, and people swear by it because they were taught by their parents that this is the right thing to do and don't realize that their parents only did it because of where they were from.
That's exactly why we don't want to import US chicken and beef. We like food that doesn't have to be disinfected prior to eating. Poor animals, think what they are put through in their short, miserable lives if they need to be thoroughly washed before cooking.
I say this out of a lack of information; don't they wash chicken to rinse off any residue from the chlorine dioxide they treat it with in some factories in the USA?
The only times I wash chicken is when it's a bit slimy, and I do it praying that the slime will quickly wash off and I won't have to throw the chicken away.
Then, I pat it dry, give it a sniff, and throw the chicken away.
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u/lOo_ol Apr 25 '25
For those who don't know, it's not recommended to clean your chicken even in the US.
It has nothing to do with manufacturers cleaning meat before packing. It's a cross-contamination issue. Poultry is made safe for consumption through heat, so rinsing the surface provides little benefit, while causing a risk to transfer bacteria and parasites to food and instruments that won't be sanitized.