In practice, how likely is it that a breast of chicken with a pink centre would cause food poisoning?
I’m aware that it’s a very different scenario to beef, where salmonella (apparently) cannot penetrate the surface, and the guts of the slaughtered animal are inspected to make sure that they weren’t punctured to contaminate the meat in the first place. So if everything goes right, the risk with undercooked beef is pretty low (as I understand it).
But what about chicken?
In: Biology
There are too many variables to give you a solid answer here statistically. Technically chicken that’s slightly pink is not inherently dangerous if cooked to over 160°f or held at a temperature lower than that like 140 for a prolonged period of time. Should you consume undercooked chicken or chicken that hasn’t been cooked long enough rather or not you get sick depends on your overall health, how undercooked the chicken was, how old it was and how much you ate. Your best bet is to always use a meat thermometer at the thickest part of the chicken to make sure it has reached 160°f.
[According to the US CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/chicken.html) (based on a 2018 study),
>”CDC estimates that *Salmonella* causes more foodborne illnesses than any other bacteria. Chicken is a major source of these illnesses. In fact, about [1 in every 25 packages of chicken](https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/national-antimicrobial-resistance-monitoring-system/2018-narms-update-integrated-report-summary-interactive-version) at the grocery store are contaminated with *Salmonella*.”
Latest Answers