Dr Oz Explains Why You ‘Definitely’ Shouldn’t Wash Your Chicken in a Viral New Interview

Popular health expert, Dr. Mehmet Oz, sparked a heated debate after claiming that one should not wash their chicken before cooking it.

Making an appearance on the radio show “The Breakfast Club,” Dr. Oz told the co-hosts of the show that there is no added benefit to washing chicken.

According to Oz, the main purpose of washing the chicken is to clean any bacteria off it. However, he argued, washing cannot solve that problem.

He further claimed that washing chicken would only spray salmonella all over the kitchen due to water splashing.

Oz explained that the chicken would have to be placed inside an oven eventually, where it would be properly heated. This process will actually kill all the bacteria in the chicken.

Therefore, Oz argued that washing chicken would add no value to the cooking process and, in fact, do more harm than good.

“So now you put salmonella on your salad, which you aren’t going to heat up to 160 degrees, that’s how you get salmonella,” he revealed.

The co-hosts were clearly surprised by Oz’s stance on washing chicken, and they tried to provide some counter-arguments.

One of the co-hosts said that people could avoid the spread of salmonella by keeping their chicken in the sink and using hot water.

But Oz replied that it would still not be safe because people also wash their salads in the sink and the water goes outside the sink sometimes.

A much better idea, Oz suggested, would be to simply put the chicken inside the oven and allow the heat to cleanse any bacteria off it.

“You touch the chicken with your hands… I grab it with two fingers but you can use tongs as well, throw it in the oven and let the oven sterilize the chicken,” Oz opined.

Previously, a spokesperson for the UK’s Food Standards Authority also told a media outlet that it is unwise to wash raw meat.

The representative from the organization explained that washing meat increased the chances of bacteria splashing onto hands, clothes, or any other utensils. The better way to kill the germs was through proper cooking.

Last year in July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a warning about the widespread outbreak of multidrug-resistant salmonella, which was linked to raw turkey.