Cleanup and Sanitation
When butchering chicken at home, one of the most important steps happens at the end: cleaning and sanitizing your kitchen. Proper cleanup can prevent cross contamination as well as food borne-illness.
Wash Your Hands
Washing your hands is one of the best ways to stop the spread of food-borne pathogens. Wash before and during cooking, especially after touching raw poultry. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends at least 20 seconds in hot, soapy water. How long is that? Try singing “Happy Birthday.”
Sanitize Your Sink
Studies have found that the kitchen sink contains even more bacteria than the garbage bin (the drain alone typically harbors 18,000 bacteria per square inch). The faucet handle, which can reintroduce bacteria to your hands after you’ve washed them, is a close second. Depending on factors such as moisture, temperature, and the particular strain of bacteria, microbes can live as long as 60 hours in your kitchen.
We’ve found that hot, soapy water is amazingly effective at eliminating bacteria. For added insurance, clean the sink and faucet handles frequently with a solution of 1 tablespoon bleach per quart of water (the bleach will also kill off some of those microbes in the drain).
Clean Your Sponges
Whenever possible, use a paper towel or a clean dishcloth instead of a sponge to wipe up. If you do use a sponge, disinfect it. To find the best method, we tried microwaving, freezing, bleaching, and boiling sponges that had seen a hard month of use in the test kitchen, as well as running them through the dishwasher and simply washing them in soap and water. Lab results showed that microwaving and boiling were most effective, but sponges can burn in a high-powered microwave, so we recommend boiling them for 5 minutes.
Clean Your Cutting Boards
Keeping cutting boards clean is a major part of preventing cross-contamination and killing harmful bacteria. We’ve conducted a number of tests to see if any particular cutting board material is better than another in resisting bacteria growth. While bamboo boards do have natural antimicrobial properties that help kill off bacteria (providing a head start on cleaning), all of the materials we tested came perfectly clean when scrubbed thoroughly with hot, soapy water. If your board is dishwasher-safe, you can put it through the dishwasher, but keep in mind that wooden boards should never go through the dishwasher.
