Disclaimer: I haven’t eaten raw chicken. Not looking for Reddit quips telling me to go to an emergency room.
Was just wondering if salmonella is pretty much guaranteed when eating raw chicken or if it’s something like 50/50 and an easy preventative measure like throwing out expired/damaged cans of food or washing fruits and vegetables before you eat them. I feel like I’ve seen a lot of people in TV shows and movies eating raw eggs.
Most of the risk comes from the processing and handling of the meat. If the chicken isn’t perfectly healthy, and the butcher isn’t very careful about keeping the intestinal tract from spreading, bacteria from the intestinal tract could spread to the meat.
This is the same reason that you need to cook ground beef to a much higher temperature than you need to cook a steak, more surface area, more points of possible contamination.
Is it possible to process and eat raw chicken safely? The Japanese certainly think so, it’s a dish that’s available widely in Japan.
It’s up to you, and your risk tolerances. But if you’re going to do it, you have to make sure you source the meat cleanly, it’s processed very cleanly, it’s stored very cleanly. It’s a high bar
We went to Japan and on the advice of the locals, tried the raw chicken dish. Everyone got crippling explosive diarrhea. They’re more confident about it than they probably should be.
Their government is telling them to stop eating it, that should tell you how confident the experts are…
Couple years ago there were locals all over America saying the masks are a hoax, and to inject bleach.
…locals aren’t always right, or even smart…
Might just be used to it, and you weren’t. Your tolerance can get pretty high if you’ve been eating it your whole life.
I tried it in Osaka and had no issues. Tbh it’s nothing to write home about, it doesn’t really taste like anything. I feel like it’s one of those foods that’s more about the prestige associated with it than the taste. As mentioned above, it has to be a very high standard of product to be safe to eat, so it’s kind of showing off how high quality your meat is, rather than actually being delicious.
“Just” explosive diarrhea? Likely wasn’t salmonella. So it could have been any number of causes. Which is why even when salmonella isn’t a risk, you gotta be careful with raw meat.
It lasted three days if that’s any indication…
Ouch. Literally and figuratively. If it wasn’t salmonella, it sure as hell wasn’t just unfamiliar food, not lasting that long.
In the US chicken is believed to be 75% with salmonella- hence why you should wash your hands and surfaces along with utensils thoroughly.
This is the same reason that you need to cook ground beef to a much higher temperature than you need to cook a steak, more surface area, more points of possible contamination.
I didn’t know this.
If I raised my own chickens and treated them well would it be an issue to eat them raw? It kind of sounds a bit like a mad cow disease situation where it’s more a byproduct of the industrialized nature of the industry
In your scenario, you would know the health of your chicken, so you could make your own risk calculation.
You would still have to be incredibly careful, and be very clean, when processing the chicken, and when preparing the meal.
I think as with all other raw foods, such as sashimi, it’s something to try only if your immune system is working really well.
The FDA actually requires that raw fish be frozen prior to consumption to kill parasites. Food Code 3-402.11-12.
In many parts of the developed world, chickens are vaccinated against salmonella.
The U.S. is not one of those parts.
Edit: sorry, I shouldn’t make an assumption that OP is asking about the U.S. So, depending on where you are, there could be varying levels of risk.
Do you mean to say that we aren’t on the cutting edge of vaccinations and healthcare? I’m SHOCKED, I tell you, SHOCKED.
I had backyard chickens in NJ and by our request the state (maybe it was the county) came and tested each one for salmonella. I don’t remember them getting vaccinated though
There’s a guy in Florida who eats a lot of raw chicken (and washes it down with raw eggs apparently) and he does just fine. You can Google “guy who ate raw chicken for 100 days” and a bunch of stories come up about him. His name is John.
It’s made me feel better about being less like a crazy person in my kitchen following my husband around critiquing how he’s cross contaminating every surface in my life. I don’t think he’s careful enough. I stopped freaking out about it and we haven’t gotten sick so it turns out he is careful enough, and I just have anxiety.
If you’re worried about salmonella and non-dry chicken:
Basically if you keep the temp at 144°F for 10 minutes it’s safe to eat.
Also, they die after 4 hours on kitchen surfaces!
Watched a thing on PBS that said basically 25% of poultry has salmonella contamination.
Realistically, if you were to grab a random piece of chicken and eat it raw, you’d be fine.
But, that being said, if you ate nothing but raw chicken for every meal, it wouldn’t take long for you to get sick.
As for eggs, the shells are much more likely to be contaminated than the insides. You could probably eat a lot of raw eggs if you were careful about not letting them touch the shells.
In Japan, some regions serve raw chicken as a specialty. But the meat is prepared in very specific ways to make it safe.
Pretty much guaranteed. Don’t do it, unless you’re on a desert island with no food, no fire, and no hope of rescue.
This is simply not true
Modern meat is generally pretty safe and chicken tartare is definitely a thing. Is it something you should do if you are immunocompromised, a child, or elderly? Probably not. Is it something you should do if you are unsure of how the meat was handled? Probably not
But if you buy quality chicken from a trusted butcher, freeze the surface, blanch it for a few seconds, you can pretty safely eat it raw assuming you’ve done a good job keeping your surfaces and hands clean. You could probably do it with grocery store chicken tbh but the risks are much greater because you have no clue if the $12/hr kid packing chicken breasts properly washed their hands (handling is overwhelmingly where foodborne illness is going to come from in this scenario)
Is it going to be safe 100% of the time? No, of course not. But neither is eating medium rare steak, or eggs with runny yolks. But could you do this every day for a year with issue? Probably.
Although I wouldn’t necessarily consider this the same over the next 4 years of american deregulation
Raw chicken is kind of like scallops btw
I think these are even “free range” since they aren’t caged.
Those are “Cage Free”.
I’m not sure what technically counts as “Free Range”. I think if the building has a small chicken size door, so at least theoretically a few could manage to go outside, that might count.I’ve heard free range only requires them to be able to walk somewhat.
Salmon? No, this is chicken. It’s pretty fowl smelling though. Probably from sitting at room tempature. Probably is contaminated with salmonella.
Reddit answer.
Why not just stop eating dead animals? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Because it’s what is readily available and affordable. I’d be down for eating ground up insects or lab grown meat. It doesn’t really matter to me what I eat.
Are you saying that the chance of getting salmonella is reduced if you instead eat alive animals?
Kagi says the risk is pretty high.
