Protecting families from contaminated food and water
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Protecting families from contaminated food and water
Posted in Our Blog on August 12, 2026
Washing chicken?
The short-form video social media platform Tik Tok is a source for many public debates between different sides. Cue the “Michael Jackson eating popcorn” meme. I’m just here for the comments.
A recent video published by culinary school graduate, Zoe Barrie, has commenters up in arms. Everyone’s a critic. Particularly when it comes to how food should be seasoned. This is one such theme in her video of spatchcock roast chicken (a cooking method where the backbone is removed and the whole chicken is laid flat for cooking). Another surprising theme in the comments was how many people criticized her for not washing the chicken.
In her video, that now has over 5.2 million views, she demonstrates how to cut the chicken and prepare it for cooking. She heavily salts it and refrigerates it overnight. She removes it from the fridge, pats it dry, adds pepper, oils a pan, then sears it. She follows up with putting it in the oven to continue roasting. She provides a flavorful chimichurri recipe to complement the meal.
Personally, I am not one to comment on a video posted by someone that I do not personally know. But I do occasionally go to the comments for additional entertainment. This occasion did not disappoint!
Some of the 330.1K comments were neutral, complimenting her technique or the video. A great many criticized the simplicity of the seasonings. One commenter asks, “what do you have against seasoning?” Another said, “why was I waiting for you to use thyme the herb,” in reference to the best approach to cooking chicken being salt and time. An unfortunate homonym.
A segue into the next major theme was one commenters concern, “did I miss the part where she wash and season the chicken or she just skipped the whole thing *cry in Caribbean*.” The fact that Barrie did not wash her chicken before preparing it confused and concerned many of her viewers.
One commenter said, “wait was it washed?” and another said “without washing it?” So many responded with comments along the line of “did you clean it out?”
One commenter simply put, “No wash?” which generated a 62 comment long debate between fellow commenters.
“No Wash?”
“Have you heard of ‘heat’”
“Heat cannot take off the bacteria that’s on it”
“That’s literally what heat has been used for evolutionarily” followed by 4 skull emojis
“you have to clean the chicken Jeremy”
“It ain’t 2240 BC anymore brother, we use FIRE now”
And so on…
Some people were raised to wash chicken before cooking it. But then again, some people were also raised in the era of chicken pox parties. (We can save that for another debate).
But what exactly is the reason people are washing chicken, and is it really a good idea?
According to a 2015 survey, 68.7% of US grocery store shoppers wash their chicken. These shoppers cited that they needed to wash off potential bacteria, feces, or excess food processing waste from the raw poultry. Others believed that a rinse in vinegar or lemon juice will help kill any germs.
Just as family recipes are handed down through the generations, so are cooking practices. But things have changed over the years. Primarily, the knowledge of how foodborne illnesses spread and how food is made.
“Fifty to 75 years ago, chicken was processed differently. Maybe you did need to wash something off – maybe there were still feathers there or something,” says Jennifer Quinlan, a professor and interim chair of food and nutritional sciences at Drexel University.
Experts now know that adding water only leads to potential spread of bacteria.
“The minute you introduce water, you give those pathogens the ability to move from the chicken to elsewhere in your kitchen,” says Quinlan.
Modern processors in the United States include multiple washing steps in their processing procedures.
“The way food is processed has changed, such that we don’t generally need to wash off your chicken now. [Processing] really changed drastically in the mid-1990s… and I don’t think most people are aware of that.”
— Jennifer Quinlan, Drexel University, Professor, Food and Nutritional Sciences
Any bacteria remaining on the chicken will not be removed from washing it. “Only cooking will destroy any bacteria that might be present on fresh chicken,” says the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS), a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
In fact, washing raw chicken is more likely to increase the risk of food poisoning.
Washing raw chicken increases the risk of food poisoning. This is because it leads to cross-contamination of harmful bacteria known to be associated with raw chicken. Bacteria like Salmonella and Campylobacter can splash onto other surfaces, other cooked or uncooked food, and contaminate your hands. In fact, spreading those germs throughout your kitchen and beyond might be riskier than under cooking the meat.
A 2019 study conducted by the non-profit Research Triangle Institute found that people who washed chicken in the sink were more likely to contaminate their fresh produce than people who didn’t wash their chicken. This is because there is a significant amount of bacteria left in the sink, even after cleaning.
People believe that if they clean the sink afterward, everything will be fine. However, 1 in 7 people who cleaned their sink after washing the chicken still had germs in the sink.
People are going to do what they want to do, despite multiple food safety related agencies urging you to do otherwise. As a food safety blogger, I am going to also urge you to reconsider the habit. In response, the CDC, despite advising the public against washing chicken, has put together a procedure to do so as safely as possible.
If you’d like to know more Food Safety News, check out the Make Food Safe Blog. We regularly update trending topics, foodborne infections in the news, recalls, and more! Stay tuned for quality information to help keep your family safe, while The Lange Law Firm, PLLC strives to Make Food Safe!
By Heather Van Tassell (contributing writer, non-lawyer)