In food safety study, 25% of participants contaminated salad with raw chicken

In a examine aimed toward assessing the influence of washing poultry on kitchen contamination, researchers discovered that greater than 1 / 4 of examine members contaminated salad with uncooked poultry—together with many examine members who didn’t wash the poultry. The examine highlights the significance of hand-washing and cleansing and sanitizing the kitchen as a way to cut back the chance of foodborne sickness when cooking at residence.

Washing uncooked poultry isn’t advisable, resulting from considerations about inadvertently contaminating different meals and surfaces—and rising the chance of foodborne sickness.

“We needed to know what impact an academic intervention would have on getting individuals to cease washing poultry earlier than cooking, and what impact any ensuing change in habits may need on lowering contamination within the kitchen,” says Ellen Shumaker, corresponding writer of the examine and an extension affiliate at North Carolina State College. “We additionally needed to get a greater thought of how, if in any respect, washing poultry truly led to elevated contamination within the kitchen.”

For the examine, researchers recruited 300 residence cooks who mentioned they washed poultry earlier than cooking it. The researchers despatched meals security info to 142 of the examine members by way of e-mail, outlining risk-reduction efforts—together with the advice to not wash uncooked poultry throughout meals preparation. The remaining 158 examine members didn’t obtain the schooling intervention.

All 300 examine members have been then invited to check kitchens geared up with video cameras that filmed meal preparation. Contributors have been requested to prepare dinner rooster thighs and put together a salad. After getting ready the rooster thighs, however earlier than placing the rooster within the oven, members have been referred to as out of the kitchen to conduct a brief interview. Contributors have been then despatched again into the kitchen to prepare dinner the rooster thighs, put together the salad, and clear the kitchen as they’d at residence.

What the examine members did not know was that the rooster thighs have been inoculated with a innocent pressure of micro organism, which the researchers would have the ability to detect. This allowed researchers to swab surfaces within the kitchen to see whether or not any cross-contamination occurred in the course of the meals preparation and cooking course of.

When examine members left the kitchen to conduct the interview, researchers swabbed the kitchen to determine any potential contamination. This course of was repeated after every participant had accomplished cooking the meal and cleaned the kitchen. The ready salad was additionally examined for potential contamination.

Ninety-three % of the members who obtained the intervention didn’t wash the rooster, as in comparison with 39% of the members who didn’t obtain the intervention.

Nonetheless, the researchers have been shocked to see that individuals who did wash the rooster and individuals who did not wash the rooster had related ranges of contamination from the uncooked rooster of their ready salads.

So what provides?

“We predict the salad contamination stems from individuals doing a poor job of washing their palms after dealing with the uncooked rooster, and/or doing a poor job of sanitizing the sink and surrounding surfaces earlier than rinsing or dealing with the salad,” Shumaker says.

“No matter whether or not individuals washed their rooster, the kitchen sinks turned contaminated by the uncooked rooster, whereas there was comparatively little contamination of close by counters,” Shumaker says. “This was a little bit stunning, because the typical knowledge had been that the chance related to washing rooster was as a result of water would splash off of the rooster and contaminate surrounding surfaces. As a substitute, the sink itself was turning into contaminated, even when the rooster wasn’t being washed.

“Washing the rooster continues to be not a good suggestion, however this examine demonstrates the necessity to concentrate on stopping contamination of sinks and emphasizing the significance of hand-washing and cleansing and sanitizing surfaces.”

The paper is revealed within the Journal of Meals Safety.