To wash raw chicken or not is the question. Ever since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tweeted that it's wrong to rinse raw chicken, people have been left confused.  CDC says that washing raw chicken before cooking can invite more germs than cooking unwashed raw chicken. Confused? Here's what you should know.

Cooking helps kill germs. So even if the chicken is unwashed,  heat from the cooking destroys any pathogen that your raw chicken may harbour. So, you don't need to wash your chicken when cooking does the job for you anyway. When you wash raw chicken or any other poultry meat, you are actually giving germs an opportunity to spread into the utensils and the sink, which could give rise to more infections. Processed Meat Linked To Breast Cancer: Other Health Reasons To Avoid Sausages, Hot Dogs and Bacon.

CDC earlier tweeted, warning against washing raw meat before cooking. The tweet read: "Don’t wash your raw chicken! Washing can spread germs from the chicken to other food or utensils in the kitchen."

Take a look at CDC's tweet:

And after a few days, CDC again shared a warning about washing poultry meat. The tweet read: "We didn’t mean to get you all hot about not washing your chicken! But it’s true: kill germs by cooking chicken thoroughly, not washing it. You shouldn’t wash any poultry, meat, or eggs before cooking. They can all spread germs around your kitchen. Don’t wing food safety!"

CDC's Reminder About Washing Raw Chicken:

However, for some reason, people on the internet are not convinced even after CDC's clarification. Some of them have retaliated to the tweets by CDC hilariously.

Take a look at some of the reactions:

Do the Avengers wash their raw chicken?

This.

Umm

No words

Ok

 

It's a case of traditional wisdom versus modern logic, people have been taking CDC's warning with a pinch of salt. But fact remains that cooking does kill most of the germs and washing raw meat can cause cross contamination. So the advisory stays: "Do not wash raw chicken."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 08, 2019 11:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).