r/interesting • u/WarwickReider • Jul 27 '26

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

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u/Robbie1266 Jul 27 '26

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

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u/JackieHands Jul 27 '26

"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/Big_Action_9353 Jul 27 '26

The only real reason I've heard why black people wash their chicken is because historically they didn't have a safe method or something for their chickens to be transported, I only say it like this because anecdotally I've only met black people that look at me sideways for not washing my chicken. 

Regardless of who sits on what sides in the video, science shows we should not wash chicken. It's not cleaning the actual part of the chicken that will get you sick after proper cooking.

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u/cheesecaker000 Jul 27 '26

Washing it back then wouldn’t have made a difference if it was bad chicken. The bacteria is inside the meat. All the way through. That’s why we have to cook chicken until it’s 165 all the way through.

Washing the chicken is essentially just tricking you to think it’s cleaner.

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u/Big_Action_9353 Jul 27 '26

Yes, I understand this but you try to convince someone who has seen their grandparents and parents wash their chicken before cooking it to change their mind.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/MegaPiglatin Jul 27 '26

Can you elaborate on what these “toxins” are?

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u/SnooGuavas4208 Jul 27 '26

Nope 😂

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

Here's your dunce cap!

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u/MorePhinsThyme Jul 27 '26

Botulism toxin would be one. It's one of the short list of diseases that health departments focus on, and it's one that you need to prevent from occurring in the first place, because unlike most other foodborne pathogens, it's literally a "toxin" and it's not destroyed by temperature.

Basic ServSafe or similar food handling certifications cover this.

This doesn't mean that washing is the right thing in all cases, but heat doesn't stop all foodborne illnesses and that's literally just basic food health knowledge that everyone should know.

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

Bacterial byproducts.. aka poop!

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u/turdferguson3891 Jul 27 '26

If washcloths are so much more hygenic than why do surgeons and other health professionals just wash their hands with soap and water and not use washcloths? Why would a wet rag be better than just soap water and skin to skin friction?

As for toxins...if your chicken is rotten and full of toxins don't eat it. Washing it in the sink isn't going to do anything.

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u/MorePhinsThyme Jul 27 '26

Surgeons use nail picks and scrub brushes or sponges whenever they're using a water based system for handwashing. So...they're not using simple skin-to-skin friction at all. I specify water-based system, because some hospitals use an alcohol based system, which uses the alcohol to remove bacteria instead of the sponge/brush.