AIBU to think that chlorinated chicken actually sounds like a sensible idea?

[Leafyhouse]

I mean, we're always being told to wash our hands thoroughly and disinfect surfaces after touching raw meat, because of the risk of Campylobacter. And now, we're not supposed to wash the chicken, just put it straight in the oven and roast - again, because of the risk of Campylobacter.

So why not chlorinate it? Sounds like mild chlorination would give the chicken a longer shelf-life, and make it much safer to handle. Why the hatred, people?

I think it might be because chlorine’s poisonous to all living things.

Why would you wash a chicken before cooking? Cooking kills the germs

Because it is used to try to compensate for much lower hygiene standards earlier in the food production process? And it doesn't seem to be very effective, if you look at comparisons between rates of food poisoning in the US and the UK (I don't have stats to hand but I think it was around 5 times more common in US).

Also, the reason it need chlorinating I believe is due to the conditions in the processing factories. Particularly awful for the workers. For example I heard something about the "bathroom breaks" being so inadequate that workers have to wear adult nappies

The reason the UK doesn’t chlorinate chickens is that our welfare standards are much much higher than the US. They have to chlorinate due to the horrendous conditions the chickens are kept in.

You were never supposed to wash the chicken.

Yabu. It’s a bad idea because it allows the lowering of animal welfare to truly abysmal standards.

Is that you Boris?

And now, we're not supposed to wash the chicken

We were never supposed to wash chicken. Cooking kills bacteria. So why would you need chlorine?

Because chlorine is not for consumption. It is well documented that overexposure to chlorine caused cancer. Breathing in chlorine damages the lungs. it causes buildup of fluids in the lungs. A lot of people who have worked with chlorine a lot (pool attendants, cleaners) end up going on early retirement due to bad health.
www.health.ny.gov/environmental/emergency/chemical_terrorism/chlorine_general.htm
It is also very damaging to wildlife. When I saw a program about people with OCD and several of the patients admitted to using 4-5 bottles of bleach a day, I wanted to report them to the police.

I’ve never washed a chicken before cooking it!

Because the US uses it as a way to mask that their safety and hygeine processes are not very good. If our standards are higher why on earth should we lower them.

Washing chicken is an extremely poor example of kitchen hygiene and is banned in commercial kitchens.

Places like USA where they chlorinate chicken have worse living condition conditions for the chickens and lower hygiene standards, The chlorine is to compensate for that. So yes you are being nunreasonable

Because you shouldn’t be eating chlorine.

Have you actually eaten chicken in the US, OP? Not the lovely organic one that you can buy at Wholefoods but the one, for instance, in salads at Pret NY? It's barely edible. It tastes terrible. I would rather eat the box the salad come in than eating that. That is yet another reason why chlorinated chicken is not a great idea.

Are there really people out there so thick that they wash chicken and spread those lovely bacteria all over their sink/kitchen in the process I am in awe and possibly understand now why some people seem to persistently give themselves food poisoning

@exexpat hits the hail on the head, it's needed to be used due to much lower standards further back in the chain. Not acceptable for animal / worker welfare or hygiene. Similar reasons to we don't need to keep eggs in the fridge and they do...

Maybe we should just drink out if swimming pools too?

They do it because it allows them to treat the birds far worse than we allow in the UK - lower welfare standards, chickens walking in their own mess (poor creatures). No thanks.

YABU.
You couldn't pay me to eat it.

We eat chlorinated salad. Food washed in chlorine Is deemed safe by the EU. It isn't so much the fact that US chicken is washed in chlorine, as the reasons that make this process necessary - generally lower hygiene and welfare standards, as others have mentioned.

YABU on so many levels - animal welfare, health risks, job losses if we accept the stuff from the USA, and that's just for starters.....

From what I've been told by American friends, people who can afford to shop at nicer (i.e., higher end) supermarkets and buy organic meat that hasn't been dipped in chlorine as well as organic milk that isn't full of growth hormones and organic pretty much everything else that hasn't been tampered with. Less well off poor people eat shitty chlorinated chicken.

When I saw a program about people with OCD and several of the patients admitted to using 4-5 bottles of bleach a day, I wanted to report them to the police.

Why? They're mentally ill and the constant bleaching is part of that. Do you also want to ring the police on other unwell people?

And now, we're not supposed to wash the chicken, just put it straight in the oven and roast

This is not new advice.
Putting it straight in the oven is fine, there is no need for washing it in chlorine.