Ground turkey from Cargill is being recalled right now. (August 2011) The meat maybe contaminated with salmonella bacteria. A reminder that we need to thoroughly cook meat products to kill any bacteria. These outbreaks of contamination revive the debate over whether too many antibiotics are used in livestock. Antibiotic resistant bacteria can be promoted. The FDA is investigating the area.

Consumerreports.org has investigated Chicken Safety by purchasing fresh, whole broilers at various stores and analyzing them.  They found 2/3 contained Salmonella and/or Campylobacter bacteria.  This is an improvement from their last test 3 years ago.

Buying organic helps but they found 57% of the organic birds had campylobacter.  Perdue chickens were better than other name brands.  Bell & Evans did well but sample size was small. Most contaminated were Tyson and Foster Farms. Buying cleaner chickens only increases odds that failing to prepare chickens won’t make you sick.

The scary part is that almost 2/3′s of the bacteria was resistant to one or more antibiotics.

Chicken labeling:

Free range – Chicken had access to outdoors. Door may have left open briefly each day.

Natural – Chicken minimally processed. No artificial ingredients, preservatives, or added color.

No Hormones – Meaningless as USDA prohibits it.

No Antibiotics – Unverified unless chicken is certified USDA organic

USDA Organic – Certified antibiotic free, 100% organic feed, and free range.

Recommendations they suggest include:

1) It is clearly important to cook chicken to at least a 165° F level of doneness to eliminate the bacteria.

2) You also need to prevent raw chicken or its juices from touching any other food to eliminate the risk of contamination. Clean anything it touches thoroughly. Do not use these items with the cooked meat.

3) Buy chicken that is wrapped, is chilled the most, and get it right before checkout.

4) Cook the chicken within a couple days or freeze it.

5) Thaw frozen chicken in a refrigerator inside its packaging and on a plate. A microwave can also be used for thawing. Do not thaw it on the counter as bacteria could grow.

6) Refrigerate or freeze leftovers within 2 hours of cooking.

We like Chipotle Mexican Grill and their food, but noticed that our local location has had a “We are not serving Natural Chicken” sign on the counter for a number of months. They advertise that they attempt to use meats without hormones or antibiotics. We decided to investigate and found some interesting details. Chipotle endeavors to use as much natural chicken as possible, but does not guarantee this. We have seen figures showing that 66% of the chicken meets the standard. This is sort of false advertising, when pure, natural ingredients are promised, but rarely used. What are the issues behind this, supply, profits?

One interesting issue is the fact that they only use chicken dark meat and not chicken white meat. Local vendors have trouble just supplying dark meat, as demand for natural chicken has waned with the economy. Granted, Chipolte serves up a lots of chicken, given its numerous locations and high demand, but needs to upholds its principles. How about switching to white meat or better yet, a blend of white and dark meat, which is how chickens come!

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