Please don’t bleach your chicken!

Please accept my deepest apologies for yelling. However, when I see a plethora of dangerous “advice” being passed around as an authoritative guide, I feel the need to correct the lies with truth.

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The other day, someone asked me for my suggestions for chicken preparation, after receiving life-threatening “guidance” from a TikTok video in which a woman advised people to “wash” their chicken with a combination of bleach and dish soap.

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In the interest of your health and safety, please do not “wash” your food with caustic chemicals or household cleaners of any kind–ever! While these may be helpful for cleaning the bacteria and residue of raw meat off of your cutting board and utensils after cutting your food, they are not meant to be ingested, nor are they intended for use on meat or produce of any kind. If you know someone who insists on preparing their food in such a dangerous manner, I highly suggest you eat elsewhere.

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The CDC and other national health advisory services recommend against washing poultry with water, as the practice has a tendency to splash contaminated liquid on more surfaces and utensils, thereby increasing the possibility of spreading germs. Thoroughly cooking your food will effectively kill bacteria such as salmonella, making this practice unnecessary.

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If you have other questions about the health and/or safety of food preparation processes that you see elsewhere online or in your community, please feel free to send me a private message or drop me an e-mail and ask! I certainly don’t know everything, but I am happy to share from my decades of experience–especially if it helps to save a life.

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For a lengthier, more in-depth discussion of this, as well as other kitchen basics and food safety topics, please join our #PLAYwithYourFood Community!

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