Safety fears over chicken washing
People who wash whole chickens before cooking them are increasing the risk of food poisoning for themselves and their households, a consumer watchdog warned today.
An estimated three quarters of those who buy whole chickens wash them, potentially spreading bacteria on to work surfaces within a 3ft radius, research by Which? has revealed.
Figures from the Food Standards Agency suggest that 65 per cent of raw shop-bought chicken is contaminated with campylobacter – the cause of more than 300,000 cases of food poisoning and 15,000 hospitalisations a year in England and Wales with symptoms including diarrhoea and stomach cramps.