Your mother probably did it. Her mother probably did it. You may have done it last night: run the raw chicken under the faucet before it goes in the pan.
It feels clean. It isn’t.
When researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) watched people cook in test kitchens, 60% of people who rinsed their raw poultry ended up with bacteria in the sink. Even after they tried to clean the sink, 14% still had it there.
And here’s the twist. People who skipped the rinse weren’t in the clear either. Bacteria from the raw bird still made it into their salads and veggies, most likely by way of poorly washed hands and a contaminated sink and utensils.
That matters because foodborne illness isn’t a rare event. By its long-standing estimate, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says 48 million Americans get sick from contaminated food each year, 128,000 end up in the hospital and 3,000 die.
With the holidays around the corner and a turkey about to take over your kitchen, here are seven habits to fix now.
1. Stop washing raw poultry
This one’s simple: Don’t do it. Not chicken, not the turkey.
Rinsing doesn’t kill the bacteria. It just splashes them around your sink, which is exactly what the USDA’s 2019 study found. The USDA’s Thanksgiving guidance warns against it, too, because the spray carries bacteria to the sink and surfaces around it.
If something’s stuck to the bird, the USDA says to blot that spot with a wet paper towel, then wash your hands right away. Cooking is what kills the germs, not the faucet.
2. Make the salad before you touch the meat
The salad finding is the scary one. In the USDA’s study, 26% of people who washed their poultry moved bacteria from the raw bird onto ready-to-eat salad lettuce. Among people who didn’t wash it, 31% still did.
Think about that. The lettuce never gets cooked, so whatever lands on it goes straight to your guests.
The fix costs nothing. The USDA’s advice: Make the vegetables and salads — anything that won’t be cooked — before the raw meat and poultry come out. Get the salad made and in the fridge, then bring out the bird.
3. Wash your hands for the full 20 seconds
You probably think you already do this. You probably don’t.
In an earlier USDA kitchen study, published in 2018, people failed to properly clean their hands 97% of the time. Most didn’t scrub for the 20 seconds needed. The same study found people contaminated spice containers 48% of the time while making burgers.
Wet your hands, lather with soap and scrub for at least 20 seconds. Count it out if you have to. Do it every time you touch raw meat, before you grab the salt shaker or the refrigerator handle.
4. Use one cutting board for raw meat and another for everything else
If bread, celery and raw turkey all take turns on the same board, you’re mixing germs into food that may not be cooked.
The USDA’s recommendation is to keep two cutting boards: a raw-meat board for the turkey and chicken, and a separate one for anything that’s ready to eat. Two different colors make it easy to remember which is which.
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5. Thaw the turkey in the fridge, not on the counter
The turkey on the counter overnight is a holiday tradition that needs to go. The USDA warns that a frozen package of meat or poultry left on the counter longer than two hours is dangerous.
Plan ahead instead. According to the USDA’s Thanksgiving food safety guidance, give the bird about a day in a refrigerator set at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or colder for each 4 to 5 pounds it weighs.
Do the math well in advance, not the night before. A 20-pound bird needs four to five days in the fridge. For a Thursday dinner, that means it should be thawing by the weekend before.
Out of time? Use cold water. Leave it in its wrapper, sink it in cold water, budget about half an hour per pound and swap in fresh cold water every half hour. That same 20-pound bird takes about 10 hours.
6. Trust a thermometer, not your eyes
Golden brown skin and clear juices don’t tell you a bird is safe. A thermometer does.
In the USDA’s 2018 study, only 34% of people checked their burgers with a food thermometer. Turkey deserves better.
The USDA says the bird must hit 165 degrees, and you should check three spots: deep in the breast where it’s thickest, and deep inside both the thigh and the wing.
If you don’t own a food thermometer, buy one before the holiday. It’s cheap insurance for a meal you spend all day on.
7. Get leftovers into the fridge within 2 hours
The meal’s over, everyone’s watching football and the turkey sits on the table for the rest of the afternoon. That’s a mistake.
Bacteria grow quickly between 40 and 140 degrees, according to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. Leftovers should be in the refrigerator within two hours, or within one hour if the food is sitting somewhere above 90 degrees.
That guide also says that leftovers keep three to four days in the fridge or three to four months in the freezer. When you reheat them, bring them to 165 degrees.
The bottom line
None of these fixes costs real money. The one most of us get wrong — rinsing the bird — actually takes more effort than doing it right.
If you have a question while you’re cooking, the USDA runs a Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854). In past years it has opened on Thanksgiving morning, too.
And if you’re still shopping for the meal, compare what you’d pay for the Aldi Thanksgiving meal deal against the Sam’s Club dinner package before you buy.
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