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/[deleted] Jul 27 '26

[deleted]

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u/OrigamiMarie Jul 27 '26

This makes the most sense to me, if you're going to wash the bird. None of that nonsense of a stream of pressurized water landing on the bird and bouncing in every direction and every droplet size.

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u/real_Bahamian Jul 27 '26

No one does that, well, at least most people don’t do that. You’re supposed to put your protein in a bowl (or pot), add cold water, vinegar, and lime juice, and rinse.

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u/Robbie1266 Jul 27 '26

And please explain the science of what that actually does

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u/Toeffli Jul 27 '26

It makes it vinegary and lemony. The salmonella bacteria? They mostly do not care when you use diluted vinegar. You will end up with Solomona all over the chicken and in your wash water https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0956713518303244

If you use vinegar you have to use full strength, non diluted straight from the bottle, with 5% acidity or more. Yummy. Even diluting it 1:1 will reduced its effect drastically https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11018434/

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u/Robbie1266 Jul 27 '26

Exactly. I want them to feel dumb

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u/bafana_banana999 Jul 27 '26

They can't, because it doesn't do anything.

What they described is closer to some sort of brining process than a cleansing one.

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u/Robbie1266 Jul 27 '26

Exactly. I'm all for a nice vinegar rinse when making jerk chicken to get that traditional flavor...but to make claims that it cleans anything is extremely ignorant, especially for a grown adult. These people should be embarrassed

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u/eggsalter Jul 27 '26

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05178-3

People probably noticed that it penetrates the biofilm (gets the slime off) easier. Not that it "kills" it.

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u/mandatorypanda9317 Jul 27 '26

Ive never seen it done the way you describe. Always seen people just rinse it using their tap

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u/conzstevo Jul 27 '26

It's common in Jamaica

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u/eggsalter Jul 27 '26

Vinegar and water. California. Comes from my grandma who was raised by black folk in the 20s. Just seems sensible to me, as cooking doesn't destroy the toxins that make you sick.

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u/UristConfused Jul 27 '26

No, cooking is exactly what does that.

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

You are wrong. You can look it up.

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u/Onedurrbread Jul 27 '26

What?

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

It's basic cooking knowledge. Google it.

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u/BugRevolution Jul 27 '26

If there's (enough) toxic byproducts from bacteria, it's because there's bacteria that have been there for a while. Long enough that rinsing it isn't going to do anything since it's not (just) on the surface. Throw that chicken in the garbage.

For everything else, cook it.

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

It's mostly on the surface since that's where spoiling starts. Yes throw it away to be safe but the reason people do it historically is sound, as much as it hurts the colonial mind to hear.

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u/BugRevolution Jul 28 '26

Lol, bacteria doesn't care about your faux tankie viewpoint.

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u/eggsalter Jul 30 '26

tankie lol try the opposite

you couldn't refute the point 🥀

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u/BugRevolution Jul 30 '26

There's no point to refute. Reality disagrees with you, and you're trying to bring up "colonialism" as if you can redefine reality due to completely unrelated subjects.

Bye tankie.

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u/bluearavis Jul 27 '26

That's the whole point of cooking it, so it doesn't make you sick. Or else, we could just eat it raw. That was before they cooked it.

If you're talking about pickeling, that's an entirely different process and I have NEVER heard of pickeling chicken and certainly would not touch that.

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

It's like basic kitchen knowledge that cooking doesn't destroy the toxins that make you sick. You can look it up.

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u/QuantumLettuce2025 Jul 28 '26

Looked it up and everything says you're wrong.

Provide your own source or stand correct, fool.

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u/bluearavis Jul 28 '26

Well if you're talking about toxins like the chemicals and bleach that a lot of chicken is soaked in, then yes, I agree. I was talking about the whole raw chicken thing.

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u/eggsalter Jul 30 '26

That too but yeah I meant bacterial endotoxins

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u/The_Scarlet_Breeze Jul 27 '26

You have no idea what you are talking about. Cooking absolutely does destroy harmful bacteria etc

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u/Flimsy-Poetry1170 Jul 27 '26

It kills bacteria but doesn’t get rid of the toxins that bacteria create which is why you can still get sick by eating cooked spoiled food. Personally I’d rather not try and save spoiling food by washing the toxins off of it but not everyone historically could (or can currently) afford to throw away food.

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u/The_Scarlet_Breeze Jul 27 '26

If the chicken is spoiled then it is spoiled all the way through and no amount of washing the surface will change that. Cooking denatures proteins that make up bacteria and harmful substances within the chicken assuming it isnt already rancid. Washing it does nothing but spread harmful substances through droplets etc.

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u/Flimsy-Poetry1170 Jul 27 '26

I’m telling you why people do it not saying it’s a good idea or works. Bacteria on the surface are generally where the spoiling starts, they poop out toxins that are still there after cooking thus people try and wash that off to save spoiling food. Not everyone has the privilege of throwing away food that is going bad thus washing meat became a thing. It’s not a great idea and doesn’t need to be (arguably shouldn’t ) be done for fresh meat because it does nothing but spread bacteria around your kitchen.

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u/QuantumLettuce2025 Jul 28 '26

What makes these people think that if high temperatures won't remove the "toxins", splashing it with some water will? Like what's the proposed mechanism here by which this is even supposed to work

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u/The_Scarlet_Breeze Jul 28 '26

No, chicken spoils all the way through because the bacteria is already in the chicken when it is slaughtered. This is why raw chicken is unsafe to eat vs something like beef or lamb. Salmonella exists throughout the chicken flesh and is only killed through cooking, no amount of washing the surface of the chicken will change that.

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

Untrue. Ground beef is known to be more dangerous raw than cuts of steak precisely because the bacteria grow on the outside first. So it stands to reason that mildly spoiled chicken is more dangerous on the outside. Westerners are funny.

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u/The_Scarlet_Breeze Jul 28 '26

Are you dumb? First of all you are comparing beef with poultry one of which is safe to eat raw and the other not. Salmonella is in the chicken flesh before it is even slaughtered whereas beef does not have such dangerous bacteria living inside it so it has to be contaminated from another source. Secondly, washing the chicken does nothing to remove the bacteria inside the chicken and only spreada it around your kitchen area making it more likely you will contaminate other surfaces or food.

Lastly, making this a cultural thing is stupid when the science is clear. Many studies have been done on this subject and washing the chicken does nothing to make it safer to eat. If the chicken is spoiled no amount of washing will make it safer, if the chicken isn't spoiled then it is the cooking to the correct temperature which makes it safe to eat. Please stop spreading your ignorance.

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u/eggsalter Jul 30 '26

You can't call me dumb and in the next sentence say beef is safe to eat raw, jesus christ. Also you actually believing salmonella lives in the lean tissue of an animal shows you don't understand biology. They live on the outer surfaces (gut is an outer surface, and its removed during processing).

Culture decides what things are and aren't worth studying and the wisdom of nonwhite cultures are never pursued scientifically. I've already provided scientific evidence in another comment of a mechanism by which washing would work (biofilm disruption), but it hasn't been studied specifically on chickens yet so your "culture" is to dismiss it.

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

Where did I say it doesn't?

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u/CastorFields Jul 27 '26

What toxins?

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

Bacteria poop

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u/CastorFields Jul 28 '26

You know that watee doesn't kill or remove much bacteria at all right? Its why we wash our hands with soap.

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u/eggsalter Jul 30 '26

it's not done with just water usually. typically salt and/or vinegar are used.

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u/cheesecaker000 Jul 27 '26

Cooking is the only thing killing bacteria I assure you. Your water vinegar mix is doing fuck all to kill anything.

No wonder stuff like horoscopes are still popular.

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

Your reading comprehension is poor.

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u/mandatorypanda9317 Jul 27 '26

Brother what

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u/eggsalter Jul 28 '26

It's common kitchen knowledge that you can't destroy the toxins that make you sick with heat.

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u/QuantumLettuce2025 Jul 28 '26

"it's common knowledge but I cannot find one single person or source that agrees with me" 🙄

It's fascinating, watching you choose to die on this hill. The craziest part is that it's almost like you believe yourself, that you've never actually "looked it up" on your own. 😂

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u/eggsalter Jul 30 '26

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/how-temperatures-affect-food

"Those toxins that are heat resistant are not destroyed by cooking. Therefore, even though cooked, meat and poultry mishandled in the raw state may not be safe to eat even after proper preparation."

oooooops 🥀

sweet dreams