Chicken: Food Safety Fact Sheet

Chicken is a nutritious, healthy food - low in fat and cholesterol and an excellent source of protein.

Food safety guidelines aim to prevent the bacteria naturally present in most food from spreading and multiplying. The following simple tips can keep bacteria at bay:

SAFELY EATING CHICKEN MEAT

The Food Safety Information Council promotes these simple guidelines to ensure the food you're eating is safe:

• Keep hot food steaming hot
• Keep cold food refrigerated
• Cook food properly
• Separate raw and cooked foods
• Keep kitchen and utensils clean
• Wash hands with soap and dry thoroughly

As raw meat juices may contain bacteria, prevent it spreading by avoiding keeping utensils such as chopping boards and knives used on raw meat away from utensils and chopping boards used for other foods.

Keep everything — hands, fridge, freezer and storage containers — clean, particularly during the food preparation process. Clean ‘in between’.

STORING

Refrigeration
Most raw or cooked chicken can be stored safely in the fridge at 5°C or lower for 2-3 days - minced poultry for just one day.

Keep raw chicken away from other foods in the fridge AND during preparation, so raw chicken juices do not contact other food that will be eaten raw, such as fruits or vegetables.

If you are storing for more than 2-3 days, chicken products should be frozen.

Freezing Tips
Freeze fresh chicken as soon as possible to maintain quality.

Use moisture proof wrap or bags when freezing chicken and label packages with the content and date it was frozen.

Thaw frozen chicken:

• in the refrigerator
• in cold water, changing every 30 minutes
• in the microwave

NEVER thaw chicken at room temperature.

COOKING

The time needed to cook chicken depends upon the cut and size - a rule of thumb is to cook for an hour per kilo.

Your chicken is thoroughly cooked when:

• The chicken meat is no longer pink inside and
• The meat juices run clear

You can use a food thermometer to check the temperature at the centre of the thickest part of the meat. When it reaches 75 degrees, it is thoroughly cooked.

Why is it important to cook chicken?
All raw meat and many other foods contain bacteria - most are harmless. However, some bacteria, when eaten in sufficient quantities, can cause food poisoning.

All bacteria are very easily destroyed by normal cooking and are then harmless to people.

The Chook Infoline 1300 4 CHOOKs (1300 424 665) and the website on www.chicken.org.au are two convenient places where consumers can get answers to these and many other questions regarding chicken meat.

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