Contaminated chicken packaging

[Bookaboo]

So we've had a few threads in the past regarding how chicken should be handled in view of increasing evidence that much of the meat we buy harbours potentially antibiotic resistant bacteria.
This story is about how tests have shown that the outside of the packets are also contaminated with whatever bacteria might be on the meat.
For a while I've been getting a small plastic bag from the fruit & veg aisle to use to pick up whatever pack of raw meat I'm buying (then keep it in that bag).
I thought I'd share this with you in case you want to start doing the same 😊

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/26/supermarket-shoppers-urged-wash-hands-eating-9-million-bug/

Exactly my point, Beyond. If you start thinking about what might have touched where, and who might have picked up the pack of chicken, changed their mind and then touched the bread/biscuits/gin, you'd drive yourself bonkers. Using words like "contamination" fuels the paranoia.

Of course campylobacter can be serious, and nobody wants food poisoning. Campylobacter is also very easy to get rid of when you cook your chicken. Of course it makes common sense to keep raw and cooked meat separate, wash your hands before cooking, handling raw meat and after, and before eating. Basic hygiene. But treating a trip to Waitrose like toxic waste is overkill.

I don't think you have even read the article in the TGraph that is linked to otherwise you'd not be talking like this.

I have - and it says to wash your hands BEFORE EATING if you have been handled chicken packets. That's pretty standard advice to wash your hands before eating with fingers, whatever you have been handling. It doesn't say that you have to wipe car steering wheels and whatever else you might have been touching.

Oh FFS!
Someone posts a link about how to avoid really nasty bugs and posters come along saying it's rubbish. WTF?
How about reading this from the WHO which was online yesterday.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-39104411

Exactly my point, Beyond. If you start thinking about what might have touched where, and who might have picked up the pack of chicken, changed their mind and then touched the bread/biscuits/gin, you'd drive yourself bonkers. Using words like "contamination" fuels the paranoia.

No-people like you who just don't think are partly responsible for the spread of dangerous bacteria that could kill an old person and give a young person a month or more of feeling very ill.

The whole point of being aware is to take simple steps over personal hygiene. The attitude here is 'I don't have any responsibility'.

FWIW I do not buy anti bacterial sprays, wipes, handwash, soaps, gel- or anything.

I do though think it is sensible to wash or wipe your hands after
a) knowingly picking up a leaking chicken packet where the fridge shelves in the shop are wet with raw chicken fluids
b) using a trolley and keypad at a till - shown by research to have a high level of e.coli .

I wash my hands the minute I come home before unpacking shopping OR possibly at the supermarket if I've picked up wet chicken packaging OR use the wipes I have in the car. So if someone has picked up chicken in the shop then a packet of biscuits etc, it reduces the risk of transferring that to my cupboards, fridge and guts.

This is not OTT- it's simple, basic hygiene.

It's just shocking that other posters think hygiene measures don't apply to them. Ha- wait till you are laid low with campo for a month and see if you feel the same!

I always use an extra bag around chicken and generally clean my hands straight after shopping too. I know the risk is small, but I have reduced immunity and do not want to end up ill if it can be avoided.

I don't think the OP is being over cautious at all.

Overkill in my opinion. Washing hands when practicable after handling anything the general public may have handled (coins, door handles, card machines etc) is sensible, as is not touching your face after handling something likely to be particularly bug-ridden.

I am immunocompromised due to heavy-duty drugs I take, yet I have had flu just 3 times in 49 years and never had food poisoning. I also work in a school. I do like to have clean hands.

The most important issue is to be aware that the outside packaging can be contaminated. So don't stick the chicken on your fridge shelf unless it's on a plate. Wash your hands after buying it and touching the packaging. Be especially careful if the packaging is clearly wet or if the shelves in the shop's fridge are wet. I had a friend who got campy poisoning from uncooked chicken (not at home) and she was very ill for weeks (and she's not immuno compromised) with dodgy bowels and weight loss. It's not something you want to be blase about.

Be aware also that the article in the TGraph was written to a word count; the experts may have said much, much more which the journalists didn't have space to include- you're getting the basic idea there, not everything there is to say. (I know- in the trade.)