Chicken And Salmonella – Some Basic Safety Precautions
Over the past few years it seems the risks of Salmonella, particularly from consuming chicken, have been discussed so often in the media most people would have thought that incidences of infection to have reduced significantly.
Unhappily this is not what has happened. For people who eat chicken, the perils of getting sick or heaven forbid, dying are far higher than they should be, and instances still occur. Knowing exactly what Salmonella is will help lovers of chicken reduce the dangers and avoid dangerous illensss.
What Exactly is Salmonella?
It is a type of food poisoning which is caused by a nasty bacterium that exists in human beings, birds and other animals. For those who get salmonella, the symptoms include fever, looseness of the bowels, being physically sick (ie vomiting) and severe stomach cramps.
This may begin within a few hours after consuming the infected poultry and may last up to 3 days. Most people make a full recovery after a few days rest, but sometimes, it can be a lot worse, requiring a hospital visit and in a few cases, even death.
Beating Salmonella
The advice given to those who are cooking with chicken is : * Wash your hands AND the chicken before before cooking. Salmonella can exist on your hands and also on the hands of anybody else how has touched the chicken. Cleaning thoroughly reduces the risks. * Keep uncooked chicken away from anything on the kitchen counter. If getting ready to prepare a chicken meal, cross contamination is a major hazard.
To reduce the risk, do not use the same cutting utensils for uncooked chicken as is used for cutting vegetables. Also, use one cutting board for the chicken and another fo the vegetables. If you follow these precautions, cooking with chicken is perfectly safe and has benefits fro your general health, Assuming you are now feeling a little more upbeat about buying and cooking chicken, here are a few other things to consider to make your chicken meals more healthy and tasty.
Nowadays there are many benefits to buying 'free-range' chickens or even 100% organic chickens. Even the high street grocery stores are beginning to sell 'organic' or 'free-range' chicken, so gettiing hold of it is easier than ever. This is a good thing because many of us are unhappy that the larger chicken farms are simply looking for a profit and not looking out for the health and wellbeing of their poultry, or the end consumers. The name, 'free-range' is usually better known by those seeking to have a healthier eating lifestyle - it requires the chickens to have access to the open air and be allowed to wander around and eat naturally instead of being confined in a small pen, or stuffed into a barn with thousands of others. Free range chickens live a more pleasant and stress free life, and this results in a taster meat, and a cleaner conscience for the consumer.
Organic chickens, which can also be 'free range', have the extra restriction that they are not subjected to antibiotics, hormones, herbicides or pesticides. Many people believe that both Free-range and organice chickens taste better and are juicier.
Did you know that organic chicken breasts only have 10 fat calories, 110 thigh calories and a whole chicken only has 130 calories? If you are dieting, that has to be good news, right? If you are an athlete or body builder and are concerned about protein, free-range chicken breasts have 22 grams, thighs have 19 grams and the whole chicken has 21 grams - all of that from a meat that tastes good as well!
Mr Wakefield is an author and copywriter who offers dietary advice and food related content for Recipes 4U, one of the greatest free recipe collections on the net. Recipes 4U has more than 40,000 recipes with specific recipe sections for Egg Recipes, Bread Recipes and Low Carb Recipes. If you are trying to find tasty recipes to prepare guests and loved ones, you can find an impressive selection at Recipes 4U.
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