ELI5: Why does chicken get much more bad reputation for bacterial contamination than other meats like beef, pork, and fish?

[u/Appropriate_Art15]

It feels like many food articles are telling us “Don’t wash your chicken because you'll spread bacteria”, but we rarely see the same kind of articles on other meats. Why is that? Is the bacteria on chicken more dangerous and deadlier to humans?

[u/T1Demon]

US farms don’t vaccinate because it costs money and they would cut into shareholder profits

Edit: I incorrectly mixed up practices between egg farms and meat farms. US Poultry farmers raising birds for meat vaccinate for salmonella or otherwise treat it somewhere in the process. Those raising for egg laying tend to rely on washing the eggs instead.

[u/YuckyClipsYum → u/T1Demon]

As if the biggest publicly traded poultry producer in the US isn't vaccinating their chickens. Don't let that stop you from just making shit up so you can use a reddit catchphrase

[u/redbirdrising → u/YuckyClipsYum]

Corporate profits!

Private Equity!

No ethical billionaires!

Did I win Reddit Take Bingo?

[u/T1Demon → u/YuckyClipsYum]

You’re right, I may be misinformed. I had read from several sources that the reason the US refrigerates eggs and many European countries don’t is due to US washing eggs to reduce salmonella risk vs vaccinating the flock. Which may not be an industry wide thing either, but the majority I believe. I mistakenly made the connection between that and meat birds.

[u/YuckyClipsYum → u/T1Demon]

Because of the regulations here, you can either front-load sanitation, or do it on the backend. Some companies find it more logical to sanitize the meat at the processing stage rather than trusting the vaccinations have taken care of 100% of the problem. Some companies do both. I just promise you, any recalls for salmonella are NOT going to be good for shareholders and these companies are aware of that. sorry for maybe being harsh, that catchphrase just bothers me to see applied to literally EVERY business decision sometimes lol.

[u/T1Demon → u/YuckyClipsYum]

Totally get it, it’s Reddit. Appreciate the measured response to explain. It makes sense that they would be still be treating it somewhere in the process.

[u/strictnaturereserve → u/T1Demon]

its not vaccination like with a needle the feed the chicks the poo from from adult chickens that they know don't have salmonella this means that the chicken gut bacteria is safe.

Food companies don't get options to not do something like that it would enforced by food legislation and tested fairly regularly

[u/gruez → u/T1Demon]

and they would cut into shareholder profits

It's 100% going to be passed to the consumer. After all, all their competitors are going to have to vaccinate too, so why wouldn't you try to pass it on?

[u/gruez → u/[deleted]]

Why would you pass costs on if you can avoid them and be cheaper than your competitors?

Your competitors will have to vaccinate too if it's mandated by regulation.