Most Chicken Harbors Harmful Bacteria ...83%

Dec. 4, 2006 -- Even if you go for the more expensive organic or antibiotic-free chicken, the chicken you buy at the grocery store probably contains bacteria that can make you sick. But safe handling and proper cooking can reduce the risk.

A startling 83% of the chickens tested in a recent Consumer Reports investigation were contaminated with one or both of the leading bacterial causes of food-borne disease -- salmonella and campylobacter.

That is up from 49% in 2003, when the group last reported on contamination in chickens. However, the results are similar to the contamination found in 1997, when almost three-fourths of the broilers Consumer Reports tested were positive for salmonella or campylobacter.

In their new report, "Dirty Birds," investigators with Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports, concluded that paying more for a chicken does not increase your chances of getting one free of illness-causing bacteria.

Jean Halloran of Consumers Union tells WebMD that fewer than one if five birds tested (17%) were free of both pathogens, the lowest percentage of clean birds recorded since the group began testing chickens eight years ago.

http://www.webmd.com/content/Article/130/117698.htm?printing=true

in any crap escaping guts that are ripped open.

The same is pretty much true of egg surfaces. We probably should be coddling any egg used as raw.

But the thing to remember about food-borne diseases is that whatever makes you sick but doesn't kill you...is probably still waiting out there to kill you later.

Wash it and handle it safely and you have no problem.

Probably 100%.

Thank You RedEarth.

I do not eat animals anymore. Meat production in this country is a disgrace, the things cattle are injected with, the "living" conditions, the disease, the deplorable practices forcing cows and chickens to be cannibals. And when we run out of cows, are we going to start eating cats and dogs?

http://www.eatwild.com/

http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/csa/csa.shtml

Even in intensive confinement feeding situation, cattle are no longer fed bovine byproducts. They are not "forced" to be cannibals.

It would obviously not be a good idea to eat raw chicken. After eating undercooked chicken accidently (I microwaved it after realizing that it should have been cooked longer), I don't know who would really want to eat rare chicken. In my microbiology class, however, we found that most of the bacteria is in the skin. If you remove the skin from chicken yourself, rather than cooking it with skin or buying skinless, you probably should be especially careful in handling it and cleaning up surface contact.

And I am far better treated than most food chickens.