Chicken Recall 2019
Skinned chickens hang on the production line of the Charoen Pokphand Foods processing plant in Saraburi, Thailand, Aug, 3. 2006. Getty Images/SAEED KHAN

Washing raw chicken on the sink could make you sick. According to a new study published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, rinsing it cold could potentially spread harmful bacteria onto kitchen counters, even on already cooked meals.

Mindy Brashears, a deputy undersecretary at the USDA, said that "a lot of people dress their salads around the sink, so it's cross-contaminated." The agency has collaborated with the North Carolina State University to investigate how people in the U.S. prepare raw meat and how it affects our health.

The researchers enlisted the help of 300 people to prepare uncooked chicken and salad in test kitchens at N.C. State. Some of them were instructed to avoid rinsing the raw meat, while another control group cleaned it the traditional way.

Out of the 183 participants that washed their chicken on the sink, 54 of them contaminated their salads with bacteria from the raw meat. Brashears noted that most people would have "been peeling vegetables and drop it into the sink," with the harmful microorganisms potentially spoiling it.

Some of the participants rinsed their raw chicken by soaking it in the sink either with soap, vinegar, or lemon juice. Ben Chapman, a food safety expert at N.C. state, said that "these are horror stories from a microbiological standpoint."

Chapman added that there is no substantial evidence that soaking raw meat in vinegar or lemon juice kills bacteria. He was surprised at "how much food preparation happens in and around the sink after someone washes chicken."

Contaminated water from the basin could spread throughout the pan, spoiling anything that comes into contact with it. Chapman said that "the food safety community didn't truly have a good sense of this till the work we did here."

The CDC estimated that at least 48 million people or one out of six people in the U.S. get sick from foodborne diseases every year. The most notorious bacteria found in poultry, Salmonella, affects millions of people in the world.

It can cause diarrhea, fever, and stomach cramps. Nearly 400 die each year from foodborne bacteria. Health experts believe that it is vital to re-educate people of its risks, adding that most of us have handled raw meat the same way.