More and more people are getting food poisoning and being sick, thanks to frozen chicken being cooked in air fryers and microwaves increasingly, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report says.
Should you care? Let's find out.
Unsafe to eat: The report says that cooking ‘breaded’ things like chicken stuffed with broccoli and cheese, chicken cordon blue, and chicken Kyiv, requires heating from a conventional oven since they might have raw chicken inside.
To be considered safe to eat, these food items need to be cooked at least till an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit is reached.
#NotAllElectricalAppliances: Buzzfeed News quoted studies as saying that smaller appliances oftentimes only cook one part of the chicken till the required temperature, while salmonella or other bacteria might still be lurking on the other part.
But, according to the CDC report, 30 percent people in the US were using air fryers, 29 percent were using microwaves, 14 percent were using toaster ovens, and 4 percent were using other appliances to cook chicken.
And a lot of these appliances don’t have the wattage required to kill the bacteria and properly cook chicken till it’s edible.
Unsurprisingly then, not the first time: CDC reported that in 2021, 36 similar infections and 12 cases of hospitalisation came to light in the United States. And in the last two decades, nearly 14 outbreaks have been a direct result of this, the US Department of Agriculture said.
And, in the US, every year nearly 420 deaths, 27,000 cases of hospitalisation, and 1.35 million infections are caused due to salmonella bacteria.
What we can do:
Check if the chicken is completely cooked or not
Use an oven
Follow the instructions on the packaging of the frozen food
Use a thermometer to check if the chicken is cooked to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit
Consult a doctor if you get food poisoning or feel sick
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