Cooked chicken should be used within two to three days, or one day if you are pregnant, immunocompromised or elderly. Freeze if more than two days’ storage is required.

Select perishable foods at the end of your shop or if you’re not going straight home, keep meat in a chilled esky in the car. Check packaging for tears or broken seals, and don’t buy products that have been opened or damaged.

Cooked chicken should be stored in the fridge as soon as it has stopped steaming. Cooked chicken should be used within two to three days, or one day if you are pregnant, immunocompromised or elderly. Freeze if more than two days’ storage is required.

After preparing raw meat, wash utensils, containers, cutting boards and kitchen surfaces with hot soapy water.

Change your sponge regularly and wash well after each use, or preferably use disposable paper towels for clean up.

Do not wash raw chicken

Thaw frozen chicken meat completely prior to cooking by placing in the refrigerator or defrosting in a microwave oven. Do not thaw chicken at room temperature as this will allow bacteria to multiply, and this could make you sick.

Salmonella and Campylobacter are bacteria that are part of the normal microflora of the chicken gut, where they can live without affecting the chicken. However, some strains of Salmonella and Campylobacter can cause illness in humans.

Any risk from bacteria is eliminated if meat is cooked properly and care is taken not to contaminate other cooked foods or those to be eaten raw, such as salad.

Both raw and cooked chicken should be used within two to three days, or one day if you are pregnant, immunocompromised or elderly. Freeze if more than two days’ storage is required.

All raw meat and many other foods contain bacteria and most are harmless. However, some of these bacteria, when ingested in sufficient quantities, can produce food poisoning. The good news is that all these organisms are very easily killed by normal cooking temperatures. Therefore, if you cook chicken properly and follow basic hygienic food handling practices in the kitchen then the risk is removed.

All raw meat and many other foods contain bacteria and most are harmless. However, some of these bacteria, when ingested in sufficient quantities, can produce food poisoning. The good news is that all these organisms are very easily killed by normal cooking temperatures. Therefore, if you cook chicken properly and follow basic hygienic food handling practices in the kitchen then the risk is removed.

There is quite a bit of information on our website on antibiotics use in chicken production. Go to the position statement section of the website for details.  In a nutshell, antibiotics are used to treat or prevent disease but regular independent testing conducted by the National Residue Survey shows that there are no unsafe antibiotic residues found in chicken meat.  The use of antibiotics is strictly regulated and administration is under veterinary supervision.

The regulations ensure that antibiotics that could find their way into the meat are not used or only used at an early stage of the bird’s life so that there is sufficient time for any residue to be naturally degraded. Given that no unsafe residues are found in Australian chicken meat, even people with allergies to certain antibiotics don’t have to miss out on eating delicious Australian chicken.

Yes, where immersion chilling (“spin chilling”) is used to rapidly reduce the temperature of freshly dressed chicken carcasses, the water used must be chlorinated or contain a chemical sanitiser approved for food contact.

The majority of meat chickens in Australia are currently processed in plants that use a chlorinated water chiller. Chlorination of the water during immersion chilling assists in killing bacteria in the water and maintaining sanitary processing conditions, similar to the treatment of drinking water or swimming pool water.

Yes, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), along with other food safety regulators and standard setting bodies around the world, such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the Codex Alimentarius Commission (which sets international standards for food safety), amongst others, have assessed the safety of chlorine in poultry processing and deemed the use of chlorinated water at the levels used in spin chillers, both safe and effective.

The use of chlorine in spin chillers is not new – it is a practice that has been employed for decades in Australia, and has contributed to safer poultry meat products as a result.