Most chicken sold in stores is contaminated, Consumer Reports says

[laundry_queen]

61. Not always

There's a program here in Canada called "Marketplace" that does stories about bad business practices or stories. Anyhow, they did one about chicken and yes, even organic chicken had tons of all kinds of antibiotic resistant bacteria. In fact, one of the top scientists in the field got sick from anti-biotic resistant salmonella himself. They did a 'test' with one lady who insisted she was very careful about cleaning (ie, wiped everything down with a bleach solution, washed her hands before and after handling the chicken, etc) and then they held one of those lights to see if any bacteria were left. Well, the bright glowing spots showed that even careful washing doesn't always get all of the bacteria. There were spots on her hands, on her counters, on her dish towels...

I'm pretty particular about cleanliness and cross contamination in my kitchen, however...I eat at my parent's house a lot. I witnessed my dad use the same tongs for the raw chicken as for the cooked chicken (I ALWAYS use different ones, or wash really well in hot water in between). I freaked out on him and he rolled his eyes at me. He still does the same thing. It bothers me that you have to not only be vigilant in your own kitchen, but everywhere else you eat. And it doesn't even matter sometimes if you are a vegetarian because if you go somewhere that prepares meat, there's always a chance of cross-contamination.

It's depressing to me - the bacteria shouldn't be there in the first place.

My family has never been sick from it, but I do know several people that spent a few weeks in the hospital with salmonella. It's not that uncommon unfortunately.