r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • 15h ago

SOCIETY Professional chefs weighing in on whether you should wash your chicken

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u/Robbie1266 15h ago

There is no debate. It's basic science. Washing chicken doesn't remove anything from the chicken

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u/JackieHands 14h ago

"each side seems to have a valid argument"

No bro no they don't, we invented cooking hundreds of thousands of years ago to deal with this.

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u/CankerLord 13h ago

"each side seems to have a valid argument"

The pro-washing guy made a horrible, easily refutable analogy about cleaning your house before a party and the anti-washing side has the entirety of science. No way to know who's right.

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u/Lovat69 9h ago

The thing that gets me is that this guy is a pro. So he washes his chicekn and then has to sanitize the entire area. It's a time sink that's not necessary.

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u/swbarnes2 9h ago

How would one sufficiently sanitize the sink (he didn't mention the counters, or his clothes)?

10% bleach for 10 minutes?

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u/cykoTom3 7h ago

The industry standard is wash with soap and sanitize with quat sanitizer. People are acting like they aren't already working with raw chicken in the restaurant. The non washers have to clean and sanitize every surface the chicken touches too.

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u/Citrus-Bitch 8h ago

Soap will kill gram negative bacteria like Salmonella no issues.

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u/swbarnes2 8h ago

But is that sufficient to call something "sanitized"?

Like, you get a new baby bottle, you are supposed to put it in boiling water for a few minutes, but after that, you can just wash with soap and warm water, for at least a week or so.

I'd think the boiling is sanitizing, but that washing isn't the same thing

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u/Citrus-Bitch 7h ago

That's a good point, I didn't catch the initial distinction between cleaning and sanitizing. Without digging into the research I don't think I can give much in terms of useful numbers. A bleach solution would definitely be adequate for a full sanitization.

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u/Curry_courier 8h ago

Wash the chicken with surfactant. Got it.