Recently, the risks of Salmonella, in particular from cooking chicken, have been discussed so often in the media most people would have thought that infection from Salmonella to have reduced to almost zero. Sadly this is not what has happened. For people who eat chicken, the risks of getting ill or heaven forbid, dying are still there, and thousands of people are infected every year.

Knowing exactly what Salmonella is will help chicken consumers eliminate the risks and avoid dangerous illensss.

So what is Salmonella?

Put simply, it is a form of food poisoning caused by a specific bacteria that lives in people, poultry and other animals used for meat. For those who get salmonella, you can expect fever, looseness of the bowels, being physically sick (ie regurgitating) and severe stomach cramps. These symptoms can commence within half a day after eating the problem food and can last up to 3 days. Normally, sufferers make a full recovery after a few days rest, but in some cases, it can take a nasty turn, resulting in a hospital visit and in a few sad cases, can lead to death.

Reducing the Risks of Salmonella

The advice given to cooks is :

* Wash your hands AND the chicken before before cooking.
Salmonella can be present on your hands and also on the hands of anybody else how has touched the chicken. Cleaning thoroughly reduces the risks.

* Keep uncooked chicken away from anything on the kitchen counter.
When preparing a chicken meal, cross contamination is a major danger. To reduce the risk, do not use the same cutting utensils for uncooked chicken as is used for cutting vegetables. It is also wise to have two chopping boards – one for the meat and another for your veggies.

If you take the advice show here, your chicken will be 100% safe and healthy

Assuming you are now feeling a little more upbeat about buying and cooking chicken, here are a few other things to consider to make your chicken meals more healthy and tasty.

Nowadays there are many benefits to buying ‘free-range’ chickens or even 100% organic chickens. Even the high street grocery stores are starting to sell ‘organic’ or ‘free-range’ chicken, so gettiing hold of it is easier than ever. This is a good thing because many of us are unhappy that the larger chicken producers are more or less just trying to make more money and not looking out for the health and wellbeing of their chickens, or the end consumers. The name, ‘free-range’ is usually more familiar to people seeking to have a healthier eating lifestyle – it needs the chickens to have access to the open air and be allowed to walk around and eat naturally instead of being confined in a small pen, or stuffed into a barn with thousands of others. Free range chickens live a happier and stress free life, and this results in a taster meat, and a cleaner conscience for the consumer.

If you want to add more chicken to your diet, you can easily discover a wide variety of chicken recipes by taking a look at one of the free recipe collections online or by making use of the local library. Poultry recipes are generally healthy recipes, providing you use the food safety advice detailed here.

Organic chickens, which may also be ‘free range’, have the extra restriction that they are not subjected to antibiotics, hormones, herbicides or pesticides. Many people think that both Free-range and organice chickens taste better and are juicier.

Did you know that organic chicken breasts have only 10 fat calories, 110 thigh calories and a whole chicken only has 130 calories?
If you are trying to lose weight, that has to be a major plus point, right? Chicken is is a very important ingredient in many low fat recipes.

If you are an athlete or body builder and are trying to increase protein levels, free-range chicken breasts have 22 grams, thighs have 19 grams and the whole chicken has 21 grams – all of that from a meat that is also delicious!

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