But cooking chicken to the well-done stage doesn’t necessarily protect consumers from salmonella poisoning. Cross-contamination—say, using the same knife and board to cut carrots for a raw salad that you just used to slice chicken—is probably a more common cause of salmonella poisoning than undercooking, according to a 2009 study from a researcher at Germany’s Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety. And Americans are awful at taking proper steps in the kitchen to protect themselves from bacterial pathogens. A recent FSIS observational study found that people performing tasks like cutting poultry “failed to successfully wash their hands 97 percent of the times they should have.”
If, like us, you buy your chicken precut, take the time to read this and change how you cook.