Store Bought Chicken

You buy brand name foods from a national store chain and expect it to be safe to eat. But when it comes to chicken you need to listen to this story.

Unfortunately, not as safe as you'd think. A recent survey of chicken showed an improvement from years ago but still the majority of chickens picked up where still contaminated.


And some brand name chicken companies did a lot worse than others. According to the CDC, over one million Americans end up getting sick from salmonella poisoning every year, over twenty five thousand end up in the hospital and about five hundred die because of it.


To test out how safe chicken is, Consumers Union bought broiler chickens at one hundred stores in twenty two states over the springtime. They found that two thirds of them were contaminated with either salmonella of campylobacter bacteria---both can cause severe food poisoning. Some brands---Tyson and Foster Farms, did worse with eighty percent contamination and others---Purdue in particular, did better but still had a contamination rate just below fifty percent.

The USDA says their survey showed contamination in only sixteen percent of broiler chickens they looked at. According to Consumers Union, the difference in numbers comes about because the USDA looks at chickens at the packing plant, consumers union looked at what you would get at the store.


The message here isn't to avoid getting chicken, just to make sure you keep it away from other foods when you prepare it, and to cook it fully to get rid of any bacteria that could be lurking.