Should You Wash Chicken Before Cooking? Health Experts Warn About Salmonella and Campylobacter Risks

Whether chicken should be washed before cooking is a question that sparks a fresh debate on social media every time it comes up.

Official food safety guidelines in the Western world are very clear: “Do not wash chicken because it can spread harmful bacteria.

However, in many parts of the world, washing chicken is a long-standing cultural tradition associated with cleanliness and care.

For example, Jamaican TV chef and author April Jackson deliberately includes clips of washing chicken in her videos because she knows it is a “hot topic.” She says, “People say I shouldn’t wash chicken in a bowl or sink; some call it dirty and inappropriate behavior.”

On the other hand, some believe that cooking and eating chicken without washing it is unhealthy.

Content creator Fidwa Hlili, who shared her Moroccan mother’s ten-step chicken-washing method on TikTok, says she enjoys reading the comments.

She says, “People write that this is why you don’t eat at other people’s houses or join shared meals at work.”

This distrust exists in parts of Asia, the Caribbean, South America, Africa, and some Mediterranean cultures.

Why Is Washing Chicken So Dangerous?

Raw chicken contains bacteria called Campylobacter and Salmonella, which cause food poisoning.

Dr. Kimon Andreas Karatzas, Associate Professor of Food Microbiology at the University of Reading in the UK, says, “When you wash chicken in your kitchen, it creates tiny water droplets or splashes that can spread disease.”

These droplets can carry invisible bacteria and spread them widely over sinks, kitchen surfaces, and nearby food.

To demonstrate this, Karatzas conducted an experiment. He applied a chemical substance to raw chicken that allowed bacteria to be seen under ultraviolet light. He then washed the chicken under running water for less than ten seconds. The water splashed around the sink area.

To the naked eye, these appeared to be harmless water droplets that could easily be wiped away. However, under ultraviolet light, the germs were clearly visible. Droplets containing bacteria had landed on the counter, on the professor’s lab coat, on the camera, and most importantly on lettuce leaves and carrots that were meant to be eaten raw in a salad.

This means that even if you cook the chicken thoroughly, you can still get sick because other foods placed on contaminated surfaces may have become infected.

Karatzas says, “This is the most common way people get infected with Salmonella and Campylobacter—you contaminate something you plan to eat raw with bacteria from something that will be cooked later.”

Why Is Campylobacter So Dangerous?

According to the World Health Organization, Campylobacter is one of the four main global causes of diarrheal diseases and is the most common bacterial cause of gastroenteritis (inflammation of the stomach and intestines), particularly in young children, leading to diarrhea and vomiting.

It is considered more dangerous than Salmonella partly because vaccination programs have reduced Salmonella levels in chickens, while there is no vaccine against Campylobacter.

Both bacteria naturally live in chickens’ intestines. During slaughter and processing, intestinal contents can contaminate the surface of the meat.

Karatzas says, “You should always assume chicken contains Campylobacter and Salmonella. Most chickens worldwide are free-range and are not raised under strict, controlled systems, so they are more likely to carry these bacteria.”

The infectious dose of Campylobacter is very small. A single drop can contain about 10 trillion Campylobacter bacteria—one thousand times more than the number of people on Earth.

Karatzas adds, “If even a tiny drop of Campylobacter or chicken juice gets onto something, that alone can easily make you sick.”

What Are the Symptoms of Infection?

According to the UK Food Standards Agency, more than 250,000 people in the UK alone are infected each year.

Symptoms usually appear two to five days after infection. The most common symptom is diarrhea, often bloody. Other symptoms include stomach pain, fever, headache, nausea, and vomiting.

People over 60 and young children are more likely to develop severe illness. In some cases, symptoms can be severe or prolonged and may require antibiotic treatment. In rare cases, the infection can lead to other conditions such as chronic bowel problems, arthritis, and a type of paralysis known as Guillain-Barré syndrome.

However, people often do not associate stomach illness with preparing chicken. Experts say many infections are never officially diagnosed, and statistics include only those cases where patients were sick enough to seek medical help and provide samples for testing.

Karatzas says, “We only see what is visible, and the real number of cases may be ten times higher.”

Why Do People Still Wash Chicken?

According to a study published in the scientific journal Food Control in 2024, 96 percent of people in eight Southeast Asian countries wash chicken. Research over the past decade in the US, Europe, and Australia found that between 39 and 70 percent of consumers also admitted to washing chicken.

In much of the Western world, chicken is produced under highly regulated and strictly monitored industrial conditions and is sold already cleaned. However, in many parts of the world, meat is slaughtered locally, sometimes in open markets where access to clean running water and proper sanitation may be limited. In such environments, washing chicken is considered necessary.

For some people, it is not just about cleanliness but also about identity, upbringing, and memories associated with home and country.

When Chef Jackson first moved to the UK and saw a warning on chicken packaging advising not to wash raw chicken, she was so surprised that she took a photo and sent it to her family in Jamaica.

She says she understands the science, but “when we wash chicken, you can see the water become very cloudy.”

She explains, “It looks very dirty, and we don’t want to eat something like that.”

Many argue that the real issue is how chicken is washed. Both chefs interviewed said they wash chicken in a bowl, often with vinegar or lemon, and then thoroughly clean and disinfect the surrounding area.

Hlili says, “My mother completely cleans the sink with hot water and soap and then uses antibacterial spray.”

Those strongly in favor of washing chicken argue that the general advice not to wash it is part of a broader inconsistency in food safety guidelines.

Jackson says, “For example, when you wash a chopping board that had chicken on it, the same risk exists.”

She adds, “In French cooking, chicken is soaked in salted water before cooking, which is called brining. That means you soak chicken in salted water, and I’ve never heard anyone say you shouldn’t do that. But essentially, it’s the same process.”

Although Karatzas agrees that washing chicken in a bowl may be relatively safer, he says there is still risk, and washing with lemon or vinegar does not reliably reduce large amounts of bacteria.

“The only way to kill bacteria is to cook it,” he says, “and most chicken has already been washed by the company that sells it to you. So there is no need to wash it again.