If you rinse your raw chicken before you cook it just to be safe, please stop. You鈥檙e just making things worse.
Though there are plenty of families and home cooks who insist that step No. 1 when preparing any kind of chicken is to wash it and pat it dry, public health officials say that鈥檚 a really bad idea.
advises against rinsing meat. advises against it. advises against it. And yet, the message still doesn鈥檛 seem to be getting through.
Even years after public messaging campaigns began advising against bringing raw poultry anywhere near a kitchen sink, judging by, there are still plenty of home cooks who insist on rinsing off meat before cooking it
Keith Warriner, a food science professor at the University of Guelph, says the problem is that for years, home cooks were told to do just that.
The 1951 edition of the Joy of Cooking advised rinsing out a chicken before roasting it. So did Julia Child . Martha Stewart recipes call for it -- in fact many recipes still suggest it. So it鈥檚 no wonder home cooks are having a hard time breaking the habit, says Warriner.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really only been since the 鈥90s or the 2000s that public health officials started saying, 鈥極h wait, this is actually more dangerous than we thought.鈥 So now you just have to de-program people,鈥 he told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.
Rinsing off meat or poultry is actually pointless, Warriner says, since any bacteria that might be on the meat surface are going to be burned off during cooking anyway. Meanwhile the washing process runs the very real risk of spreading bacteria.
Spray from the tap can 鈥渁erosolize鈥 bacteria, and tiny droplets can find their way onto the sink, work surfaces and utensils as far as 50 cm away.
The pathogen that鈥檚 of most concern when it comes to chicken is called campylobacter.
鈥淛ust 500 cells of campylobacter will give you profuse diarrhea for a week,鈥 he said, adding that not much more is needed for E. coli or salmonella infection either.
To put that into perspective: about 1 billion bacteria can fit onto a single pinhead.
When such a small amount of bacteria is needed for infection, cleaning a sink after rinsing a chicken might not be enough.
鈥淭he sink is the hotspot for bacteria in the kitchen,鈥 Warriner said. 鈥淪ponges, particularly, harbour huge numbers of bacteria and are magnets for contamination. So when we clean surfaces with these sponges, we just spread them around.鈥
Rinsing meat isn鈥檛 worth the risk, he says, particularly since cooking kills bacteria anyway.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we always go back to the point that you don鈥檛 need to rinse meat; there鈥檚 no benefit,鈥 he says.
FRUITS & VEGETABLES
Okay, well if we shouldn鈥檛 rinse meat, what about fruits and veggies? Most of us are told to wash produce under running water before eating or preparing them, but Warriner isn鈥檛 convinced it does much good.
If it鈥檚 pesticides that worry you, he says there are only trace amounts on most produce anyway and what鈥檚 there isn鈥檛 likely to come off with a simple rinse. Pesticides sprays are actually designed not to wash off easily.
Yes, there are produce washes and soaps on the market that promise to do better, but It says produce soaps are simply 鈥渘ot necessary.鈥 The U.S. FDA goes even further , saying the products are not approved for food use.
Warriner advises rinsing off visible soil on your vegetables, but says you shouldn鈥檛waste your time with packaged salad mixes.
鈥淲ith bagged lettuce there鈥檚 no point in washing it; they鈥檝e already washed it several times during processing and you鈥檙e not going to do any better with a little rinse in your kitchen,鈥 Warriner says.
If you are going to rinse fruits and veggies, it should always be done under running water 鈥 not by soaking them in a sink, which tends to expose them to even more bacteria.
Fruit should also never be washed before being stored in a refrigerator, say Warriner. Not only will the water speed up decomposition, it could collect in skins and rinds, like those on melons or citrus fruits.
鈥淲hen you get moisture on it, you鈥檙e basically giving microbes like listeria somewhere to grow,鈥 he said.
RICE
What about rinsing rice? Most chefs agree rice should be rinsed before cooking to clear off dust. (The one exception is parboiled rice --also called converted rice 鈥 which has already been cleaned.) But another reason chefs advise it? Better rice; rinsing removes surface starch that causes rice to clump together or get gummy.
Others like to soak their rice in clean water for a couple of hours. But the U.S. FDA thinks we should go even further. It says instead of letting rice absorb all the water in a pot, home cooks should use 6 to 10 parts of water for every part of rice, and then drain off the excess after cooking, just like pasta.
That鈥檚 because the FDA says it鈥檚 concerned about arsenic. Rice absorbs higher levels of arsenic than other foods during growing. Arsenic can build up in our bodies and long-term exposure has been linked to higher rates of bladder, lung and skin cancers, as well as heart disease.
鈥淧ublished studies, including research by the FDA, indicate that cooking rice in excess water (from six to 10 parts water to one part rice), and draining the excess water, can reduce 40 to 60 percent of the inorganic arsenic content, depending on the type of rice,鈥
Warriner says he鈥檚 not too worried about rice. He says he pre-soaks his rice, which also reduces arsenic, but he isn鈥檛 too worried.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not like you鈥檙e going to drop dead because you had a bowl of rice,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a slow accumulation. That鈥檚 why they recommend not having too much rice each week鈥 You need quite a lot of organic arsenic before it does anything.鈥
The FDA says it recognizes that consumers do not typically prepare rice like pasta and notes that draining off cooking water will reduce vitamin content. It says choosing a diet with many kinds of grains and starches is the best way to reduce arsenic risks.
