Contaminated Chicken Sold in Many US Stores, Study Shows

You might want to think twice about buying chicken on your next trip to the grocery store. A study published Thursday by Consumer Reports found that nearly all samples of raw chicken gathered from stores around the country contained potentially harmful bacteria, the AFP reported.

Analyzing 316 raw chicken breasts in 26 states, Consumer Reports "found potentially harmful bacteria lurking in almost all of the chicken, including organic brands."

The study looked at chicken brands from Walmart Stores, Whole Foods, Kroger and Trader Joe's.

Perdue, Pilgrim's, Sanderson Farms and Tyson, the four largest brands to sell chicken, "contained worrisome amounts of bacteria" such as salmonella and E. coli.

In addition to the bacteria, chicken breasts were tainted with fecal contaminants, which could cause blood and urinary-tract infections.

The Consumer Reports study was going on this fall when the government investigated a salmonella outbreak that infected 389 people. Investigators linked the bacteria to chicken from three Foster Farm plants.

"What's going on with the nation's most popular meat?" the consumer publication asked.

Americans buy around 83 pounds of chicken per person each year, according to Consumer Reports. Each year, more than 48 million people get sick from food tainted with salmonella, campylobacter, E. coli and other contaminants.

The Centers for Disease and Prevention Control, which have studied outbreaks from 1998 to 2008, have found that "more deaths were attributed to poultry than to any other commodity."

According to the National Chicken Council, the study only analyzed a sample size of .0004 percent of chicken sold on a given day.

"Americans eat about 160 million servings of chicken every single day, and 99.99 percent of those servings are consumed safely," the council said in a statement. "Unfortunately, this particular statistic was left out of the 'in depth' piece recently published by Consumer Reports."

For safety when cooking with chicken, experts recommend always washing your hands after preparing the meat and cooking it to at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit.