CDC Says It's Not Good To Wash Your Chicken, Twitter Claps Back

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The CDC Sparks Debate When They Tell People Not To Wash Their Chicken Before Cooking

A food prepping tradition is under question, now that the Center for Disease Control has released a new report.

Many of us were probably taught to wash/rinse off our meats before cooking them. But now, the CDC has determined that this was a lie and you actually shouldn’t rinse off your meatz.

On April 26, America’s leading health protection agency warned in a tweet,

“Don’t wash your raw chicken! Washing can spread germs from the chicken to other food or utensils in the kitchen.”

With their tweet, the CDC included a link on tips for preventing food poisoning with chicken and they also revealed that an estimated million people per year get sick from contaminated poultry. As the most eaten meat in America, the CDC warns that chicken juices can spread to other items in the kitchen causing contamination:

“Chicken can be a nutritious choice, but raw chicken is often contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria and sometimes with Salmonella and Clostridium perfringens bacteria,” the CDC explained. “If you eat undercooked chicken or other foods or beverages contaminated by raw chicken or its juices, you can get a foodborne illness, which is also called food poisoning.”

When buying chicken, the CDC offered other suggestions like placing it in a disposable bag before putting it in your shopping cart or refrigerator to stop raw juices from spreading to other food.

Despite all this new info, the Internet wasn’t quite ready to break tradition just yet and the whole not washing chicken suggestion caused a huge debate.

One Twitter user @2Gee_ wrote, “The CDC tried to tell us not to wash our raw chicken because they know Black people wash their chicken before we prep it. Just another way to try and kill us all, don’t listen to the BS.”

Meanwhile, @TaeDaReBirPH wrote, “Aye, if you ‘Wash’ your chicken in the sink, dont invite me to eat none of ya food…. and I Truly mean NONE!!!! I can tell many of ya’ll so contradictory…. and also dont know sh** about food, bacteria, or cross contamination.”

Things got so heated the CDC had to tweet a reply three days after their announcement:

“We didn’t mean to get you all hot about not washing your chicken! But it’s true: kill germs by cooking chicken thoroughly, not washing it. You shouldn’t wash any poultry, meat, or eggs before cooking. They can all spread germs around your kitchen. Don’t wing food safety!”

Celebrity chef and host of Cleo TV’s New Soul Kitchen Jernard Wells also chimed in, telling the New York Daily News:

“The truth is washing is not really removing the bacteria, you kill the pathogens. It’s also important to thoroughly wash your hands after handling raw poultry and never use the same cutting board to prep other ingredients if the raw chicken has touched it.”

For those who want to carry on the tradition, he added:

“However, if you must wash your chicken because it’s an age-old heritage and you just want to [feel] your chicken is clean personally; please wash it in a very contained area and after you finish, please use bleach or kitchen sanitizer to thoroughly clean everything.”

There you have it.

So you washing or nah?