Why people wash meat (or don't)

***ADDITIONAL SOURCES IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE***

[aragusea]

Hey all, I'm seeing a lot of folks commenting, "I've been washing meat my whole life, and it's never made me sick!" A few responses to that:

1) You would have absolutely no way of knowing if doing this made you sick. Most people who get a minor foodborne illness either don't know they had it, or would have no way of knowing how they got it. People usually assume it was the last thing they ate, but foodborne infections have incubation periods of days or even weeks.

2) No scientist I've talked to about meat washing characterized it as a major health risk. They're simply telling you it's a risk that isn't worth taking, unless you have some specific, compelling reason to wash the meat, which many of you do. Just try not to splash much water around.

3) To my knowledge, the only research that's been done on this is observational studies where they watch people cook and then go back and look for bacteria or its surrogates. As far as I can tell, no one has finished any epidemiological research (large-scale studies of actual human populations out there in the real world) that would tell us how much meat-washing elevates your risk of foodborne illness.

4) Assuming meat-washing does indeed raise your likelihood of foodborne illness by a few percentage points, keep in mind that you would have no way of perceiving that on an individual level. Most people get sick from food at least a few times in their life, and unless you're part of a major outbreak where public health investigators get involved, you'll probably never know what made you sick. Things that just elevate your risk a little bit are usually only perceivable at the population-level, where scientists can use statistical analysis to isolate variables.

5) Whether you should care about something that might only raise your risk of illness by a little bit is entirely up to you. Personally, I'm not that worried about it. I'm just interested in the cultural dimension here. I still don't know what this "raw" or "fresh" taste is that y'all are trying to wash off!

[Thuazabi]

"Screw it. Nothing I've done has killed us yet."

I kind of hate how accurately that describes me.

[ezdesign]

"Why I wash my hands, NOT my meat"

[morrigangg]

The lime/salt brine "wash" makes sense to me, the "whole chicken under the faucet" thing not so much.

[patriciozimbron]

I have enormous respect for Adam, his research and delivery. I was a chef for 10 years and I went to culinary school in France. One of the chefs there taught to always wash your chicken under running water. Similarly, descaling fish is usually done under running water. A lot of chefs teach what they were taught without questioning it. Thank you for your work! It’s fascinating!

[Haedox]

can’t focus on what you’re saying with the smurf that looks like you

[Dogrin]

So I remember seeing an argument about this Somewhere On the Internet, with the washers and the anti-washers going to battle. And then this person comes in like "but what kind of soap do you guys use to wash your meat? X brand?" and you could hear the record scratch moment as everyone thought, "surely, this is a troll." But then someone else came on in support of them. And then another person. This whole group of people admitting they give their raw ass whole chicken the oil spill treatment with Dawn dish detergent or whatever. And then the rage descended from all sides. It was like Chicago deep dish pizza stans and NY style pizza stans coming together to hate on California pizza or smth. Incredible.

[marvinsroommate]

Im from The Netherlands, and washing meat it something we wouldn't even think of here. Though, I have lived on Saint-Martin, Dutch Caribbean, and I used to go to a cooking class with my mom. Us and the teacher (who was a dutch friend of ours) were the only white people in there. When our teacher (the white guy) gave a lesson about hygiene, he thought it was a fun idea to ask my mom and I if we washed our meat. And let me tell you, the whole class of 30+ people were disgusted by our 'not-washing method'. Then he asked how I liked my steak, and I said: "medium rare" (like any other normal person (joke)). And again, the whole class looked at me like I was some kind of monster. It was hilarious to me, and moments like that really show you how normal things are in some places, that in other places you wouldn't even think of it.

[cvilla]

I do appreciate how your videos take the reasonable standpoint of "Yeah it might be a safety concern but honestly its not a super big deal." So many internet people act like one small misstep in food safety will kill your whole neighborhood

[melsyoutube]

it's often just a case of being lost in translation. my caribbean neighbors always *BRINE* their meat, but call it "washing".

as for bacteria, you're correct. no meat washers are washing their meat in order to "remove bacteria", it's literally about removing dirt and other particulates that are often found on meat that isn't mass produced in a highly developed country.

[davidmelgar]

It's genuinely frustrating how this is a well made and respectfully researched video is getting a bunch of comments from people who definitely did not watch the video

[freemagicfun]

In the US I did not wash meat. It comes in as clean as it is going to be. But... in the Philippines meat does not come on Styrofoam trays. We buy our meat from the wet market most of the time. It was slaughtered that morning, behind the wet market, butchered on a tree stump, and sold on a non-refrigerated table. The grocery store is hardly any cleaner. We wash it because it has a questionable hygienic past. I know we cannot wash away bacteria, but the 1st washing makes some pretty funky water... and it is a good opportunity to remove the bone shards from their version of butchering... 😎

[marloweirvine]

This was an eye opener for me. I learned to cook starting in my early teens from the Time-Life "Foods of the World" series (publishing began in 1968 though I found it much later and own all 27 volumes). Every single chicken recipe begins with "Wash the chicken under cold running water." I somehow missed that the recipes published after that habit was ingrained do not say that. Wow, Thank you.

[litrallynotmebruh]

I feel like when you bought meat from a wet market where the meat has been chopped and hanging out in the air for hours you just want to wash it
Completely different story when you buy from a grocery stores with pre-packaged meat

[liltwerp]

i, live in a third world country where meat is bought outside with flies everywhere, so washing it is definitely a yes.

[BlockIce]

I like your approach to sentive material like this one. Is thoughtful, and respectful of other people actions, but also bring knowledge. Funny thing about meats, American meat takes longer to smell than other places meat, including Europe.

[portiaforde]

I am from the Caribbean and it is unheard of to cook meat without washing it with lemon and salt and also vinegar. By the way, we also wash our rice before cooking.

[LockheedMartinEnjoyer]

Alot of thing is done by "this is how my parents always done it and their parents to" without much though really.

[phildman]

I wonder if the method of processing of meat across countries affects this as well. When I moved from the UK to Sweden I immediately noticed a difference in the chicken that I bought from the supermarket. Pre packed chicken in the UK doesn't really smell at all unless it is old, however chicken in Sweden usually has that weird slightly off smell about it. Although when cooked, both of them tasted absolutely fine. I wondered if there is some difference in the way the meat is processed, maybe it is washed before packaging in the UK but not in Sweden or other places, which might give rise to that smell that people complain about.

[ali.aljishi]

Arabic is actually written from right to left. But in the video it's spelled left to right. Just thought that might be something you'd find interesting!