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Over the past few years it seems the perils of Salmonella, particularly from consuming chicken, have been mentioned so often on TV most people would have thought that incidences of infection to have reduced significantly. Unhappily this is not what has happened. For regular chicken eaters, the risks of getting ill or worse are still present, and instances still occur. Better understanding of Salmonella will help cooks reduce the risks and avoid dangerous illensss. Salmonella Explained It is a form of food poisoning which is caused by a specific bacteria that lives in human beings, birds and other animals. For those who get salmonella, the symptoms include feverishness, looseness of the bowels, being physically sick (ie vomiting) and strong stomach cramps. These symptoms can start within half a day after consuming the infected poultry and may last up to three days. Most people recover naturally, but in some cases, it can become worse, resulting in a hospital visit and in some cases, can lead to death. Help! How Can I Avoid This? The advice given to those who are cooking with chicken is : * Clean your hands AND the chicken before before cooking. Salmonella can be present on your hands and also on the hands of anyone else how has touched the chicken. Washing thoroughly reduces the risks. * Keep uncooked chicken away from anything on the kitchen counter. When preparing a chicken meal, cross contamination is a major hazard. To reduce the danger, do not use the same cutting utensils for uncooked chicken as is used for cutting vegetables. Also, use one cutting board for the chicken and another fo the vegetables. If you follow these precautions, cooking with chicken is perfectly safe and has benefits fro your general health, Assuming you are now feeling a little more upbeat about buying and cooking chicken, here are a few other things to consider to make your chicken meals more healthy and tasty. These days there are many benefits to buying 'free-range' chickens or even totally organic chickens. Even the high street grocery stores are starting to sell 'organic' or 'free-range' chicken, so gettiing hold of it is easier than ever. This is a good thing because many of us are unhappy that the larger chicken farms are merely trying to make more money and not looking out for the health and wellbeing of their chickens, or the end consumers. The name, 'free-range' is usually better known by those seeking to have a healthier eating lifestyle - it requires the chickens to have access to the open air and be allowed to wander around and eat naturally instead of being confined in a small pen, or crammed into a barn with thousands of others. Free range chickens live a happier and stress free life, and this results in a taster meat, and a cleaner conscience for the consumer. Organic chickens, which may also be 'free range', have the further restriction that they are not pumped with antibiotics, hormones, herbicides or pesticides. Many people believe that both Free-range and organice chickens taste better and are juicier. Did you know that organic chicken breasts have only 10 fat calories, 110 thigh calories and a whole chicken only has 130 calories? If you are trying to lose weight, that has to be a major plus point, right? If you are an athlete or body builder and are trying to increase protein levels, free-range chicken breasts have 22 grams, thighs have 19 grams and the whole chicken has 21 grams - all of that from a meat that is really tasty! Mr Wakefield works as a a keen amateur chef who provides nutritional support and cookery articles for Recipes 4U, one of the most extensive free recipe collections on the web. Recipes 4U has more than 40,000 recipes with specialist recipe sections for Mexican Recipes, Bread Recipes and Vegetable Recipes. If you are looking for yummy recipes to cook at home, you will surely find exactly the right recipe for you at Recipes 4U.
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chicken, poultry, salmonella, cooking, food poisining, cuisine,
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