Raw chicken, why it’s risky to eat it

From tetanus to salmonella and beyond. Here are all the risks involved in eating raw or undercooked chicken meat.

Chicken meat: this is what you should never do when you cook it

Why is it forbidden to eat raw or undercooked chicken? Here are all the risks, even lethal, that we run every day.

For various reasons, ranging from lightness to taste, passing through the list of foods recommended in certain diets, chicken is one of the most consumed foods by all, vegetarians, vegans and fruitarians excluded. The cost is not excessive, indeed far from it, which allows you to consume a certain quantity per month. However, it presents only one important precaution: it should be eaten cooked.

With the spread of cooking programs, more and more people have fun in the kitchen, looking for the most particular recipe possible. In the various editions of Masterchef, to make a famous example, it has often happened that someone tried to propose raw chicken, or almost. Bastianich's reactions to this have become popular on the web.

There were also some competitors who complained about this personal taste of the chef, which would have limited them. However, reality is very different. Raw chicken is very dangerous for our health. More “rare” cooking is permitted for bovine and pork meat, but not for chicken and birds in general.

When cooking chicken you should be aware that these animals are insensitive to certain diseases, disease that are very serious for humans. One of these is tetanus, for example. The clostridium of tetanus represents a mortal threat to the man, unlike the birds.

It is impossible not to mention salmonella (in part the chickens are affected, especially in the reproductive phase) and campylobacter, harmless bacteria if we talk about chickens but definitely dangerous for our body.

Here are the effects of campylobacter:

• Abdominal pain
• Vomit
• Diarrhea
• Generic problems, difficult to reconnect to ingested food (which increases its danger)

A link to the Guillain-Barré syndrome was also recognized, leading to limb paralysis. Eating cooked chicken instead eliminates all risk factors, killing all the bacteria, otherwise alive and vital in the raw carcass of the animal.

It is therefore advisable to cook your own chicken properly, with the cooking going up to the innermost parts. Do not stop at the pinkish color. It would be good practice not to wash it, running the risk of keeping bacteria on your hands. In this way we could contaminate foods to be eaten raw, such as a salad to be served as a side dish. It would therefore be necessary to wash your hands after handling a chicken, aware of the danger.