Salmonella Tainted Chicken

dayzed&confused

As most of you know by now there is an outbreak of salmonella due to chicken. Be sure and wear those gloves when handeling raw chicken and clean up afterwards with soap and water.Watch out for cross contamination. Don't use the same utinsels from the chicken on other foods without first washing with soapy water. I personally do not use wooden cutting boards or utinsels with any kind of meat but that's just me. Use a hard plastic board. Be sure and cook that bird on the done side, preferably 170 degrees. That way the salmonella germ will be dead. Now, let's go cook something!

Little Steven

Where is the outbreak?

dayzed&confused

The Company is Foster Farms. They are in California and that is where most of the cases are at 19.the Center for Disease Control is reporting 317 nation wide and growing. Google salmonella chicken outbreak.

sumoconnell

Steak it is!

I was in China earlier in the year during the bird flu outbreak.  My friend/colleague over there said "Don't worry - we will steer clear of chicken".  Cool - thanks!  During dinner, I say "Hey, this looks and tastes like chicken, whassup?"...... "No - This is bullfrog".  My German colleague almost heaved.. I discovered Hunan style bullfrog is good.

dayzed&confused

Taste like chicken! I couldn't resist that. Actually frog legs are pretty good. I remember as a kid mother would chickenfry them. Now rattlesnake, hell no, ain't worth the trouble.

jaydub58

Here at home lots of the stores, like Safeway, still have Foster Farms chicken on their shelves.  They just advise consumers to "handle and cook properly".  Think I'll try buffalo and rattlesnake for a while!

gdenby

Agreed. Always, always watch for cross contamination. Clean the utensils and boards, and scrub hands often. (Note: human beings carry staph. If someone sneezes in the kitchen, assume a contamination risk)

However, on the use of cutting boards. To quote from this site:

"The scientists found that three minutes after contaminating a board that 99.9 percent of the bacteria on wooden boards had died, while none of the bacteria died on plastic. Bacterial numbers actually increased on plastic cutting boards held overnight at room temperature, but the scientists could not recover any bacteria from wooden boards treated the same way."

Other articles mention that new plastic boards are very easy to clean, but that once they are scuffed and scarred, it appears they retain lots of pathogens. There have been suggestions, but no proofs I've read, that there might be compounds in wood, such as tanins, that are inimical to bacteria.

Botch

Its fun to watch very early PBS shows with Julia Child, flopping raw chickens all over the place without a care in the world.

I miss those simpler times, without salmonella, flesh-eating bacteria, cell-phone plans or PowerPoint...

8-|

Skiddymarker

Good post - we've been seeing the warnings on both the US and Canadian TV nets, hell, Canadians buy half of the chicken sold in Bellingham and most of it is Fosters. Thought the largest market was California/Oregon/Washington and due to extent of cross border traffic, BC. 

Personally, have always treated every poultry product as it may have salmonella bacteria as part of the packaging. The levels on this latest batch from Fosters seems to be extraordinary.