停!清洗感恩节火鸡会传播细菌

停!清洗感恩节火鸡会传播细菌

Go ahead and rinse your cranberries, potatoes and green beans. But food experts say don’t — repeat don’t — wash the turkey before popping it in the oven on Thanksgiving Day.

继续清洗你的蔓越莓，土豆和青豆。但是食品专家说，在感恩节那天把火鸡放进烤箱之前，千万不要清洗火鸡。

They say that could spread the germs lurking on your turkey in the kitchen sink or nearby food. But it’s been a challenge trying to convince cooks to stop rinsing off raw poultry.

他们说，这可能会传播潜伏在厨房水槽或附近食物里的火鸡上的细菌。但说服厨师停止清洗生禽是一个挑战。

“If your mother did it and your grandmother did it, and suddenly the (government) says not to wash your turkey, you may take some time to adjust,” said Drusilla Banks, who teaches food sanitation for the University of Illinois Extension.

伊利诺伊大学食品卫生学院教授德鲁西拉·班克斯说:“如果是你妈妈和你奶奶做的，然后突然(政府)说不要洗火鸡，你可能需要一段时间来适应。”

Germs that can make people sick are common in the guts of healthy poultry and are legally allowed to be on raw turkey and chicken. The assumption is that nobody eats their poultry rare, and that thorough cooking will kill the bacteria.

能让人生病的细菌在健康的家禽内脏中很常见，法律允许生火鸡和鸡肉上有这些细菌。他们的假设是，没有人会吃半生不熟的家禽，而彻底的烹煮会杀死这些细菌。

So it’s possible that two common causes of food poisoning — salmonella and campylobacter — are on the turkey, said Mindy Brashears, a food safety official at the US Department of Agriculture.

因此，美国农业部食品安全官员明迪•布莱希尔斯表示，导致食物中毒的两个常见原因——沙门氏菌和弯曲杆菌——可能来自火鸡。

The do-not-wash raw poultry advice from the USDA is relatively new and perhaps hasn’t caught on because it goes against the ingrained belief that washing makes things clean, said Banks.

班克斯说，美国农业部提出的不清洗生禽的建议相对较新，可能还没有流行起来，因为它违背了人们根深蒂固的观念，即清洗能使东西变得干净。

Participants in a food safety study offered their own rationale: “If it’s still slimy — I’m not sure what that is. It just feels good to wash it,” said one. Another said: “My grandmother taught me that. She just said to wash all your food because there’s no telling where it’s been before it got in the pack.”

一项食品安全研究的参与者给出了他们自己的理由:“如果它还是黏糊糊的——我不确定那是什么。只是洗起来感觉很好。”另一个说:“这是我祖母教我的。她只是说要把你所有的食物都洗一洗，因为在它们被装进包里之前，谁也不知道它们去过哪里。”

Benjamin Chapman, a study author and food safety expert at North Carolina State University, said the instinct to wash raw poultry goes back at least decades when people relied more on visual cues to spot problems with poultry. TV chef Julia Child was among those who said washing chicken was “just the safer thing to do” before experts began advising against it.

研究报告的作者、北卡罗莱纳州立大学的食品安全专家本杰明·查普曼说，人们清洗生禽的本能至少可以追溯到几十年前，那时人们更多地依靠视觉线索来发现家禽的问题。电视厨师茱莉亚·查尔德(Julia Child)等人曾表示，在专家开始建议不要洗鸡之前，洗鸡是“更安全的做法”。

But food prep is a juggling act, and germs from poultry can be spread even if it’s not washed, especially when birds are removed from packaging. It’s why washing and sanitizing hands, utensils and surfaces are even more important.

但是准备食物是一种杂耍，即使不清洗，家禽身上的细菌也会传播，特别是当禽类被从包装上拿下来的时候。这就是为什么洗手和消毒手、器具和表面更加重要的原因。

The USDA-funded study underscores that point.

美国农业部资助的这项研究强调了这一点。

Researchers sprayed raw chicken with a harmless strain of E. coli and watched volunteer cooks at test kitchens. Among those who washed their raw chicken, about a quarter ended up spreading the bacteria to their lettuce. But even some of those who did not rinse the chicken got germs on the lettuce.

研究人员在生鸡肉上喷洒了一种无害的大肠杆菌菌株，并观察了志愿者在试验厨房做饭的情况。在那些清洗生鸡肉的人当中，大约有四分之一的人最终把细菌传播到了生菜上。但即使是那些没有清洗鸡肉的人，生菜上也有细菌。

There are other opportunities for germs to survive and thrive on turkeys: thawing and cooking.

火鸡还有其他的机会让细菌存活和繁殖:解冻和烹饪。

For thawing, experts say frozen birds shouldn’t be left out on counters since germs can start multiplying on the outer parts that defrost first. They instead recommend thawing in fridges, cold water or in microwaves. You can also cook a frozen turkey, but it will take a lot longer.

专家说，解冻时不应把冻鸟放在柜台上，因为首先解冻的外部部位会滋生细菌。相反，他们建议在冰箱、冷水或微波炉中解冻。你也可以做一只冻火鸡，但会花更长的时间。

And to ensure a bird is thoroughly cooked, they say to use a thermometer to check that the deepest and thickest parts of it have reached 165 degrees.

为了确保火鸡完全煮熟，要用温度计检查火鸡最深最厚的部分是否达到165度。

Even after the meal is cooked, you aren’t out of the danger zone. To keep turkey and other leftovers safe, experts say they should be refrigerated after two hours.

即使饭做好了，你也没有脱离危险区。专家说，为了保证火鸡和其他剩菜的安全，应该在两小时后冷藏。