It should come as no surprise that investigative reporting will turn up some news we don’t want to know or even think about. Hamburger recalls and E.coli was one such problem. Finding additives in our foods or uncovering salmonella in cantaloupe is another.

We haven’t attacked chicken in a while. Whoa. Stop there. The Consumer Report article just came out and the news is bleak; downright scary. Two-thirds of the almost 400 tested broilers were contaminated with some form of bacteria. Not a pretty picture.

Whenever we’ve talked about food safety, we’ve also talked about the safe handling of food, and with chicken cross-contamination is a major problem. It is always recommended that surfaces be santitized fully and some food experts even suggest that chicken should not be rinsed prior to cooking as further contamination is possible.

What happens when you follow the cooking guidelines? (Cook chicken til at least 165 degrees). Are the pathogens destroyed? After all, we seldom eat our chicken meat raw, but are we careful enough about the proper handling and cooking temperatures? When we buy chicken, air-chilled broilers top the list for the safest purchase.

The results should be good for shoppers who follow the brands. Perdue scored significantly better than many of its competitors as 56% of their chickens were free of the most dangerous bacteria. Tyson and Foster Farms will not be as pleased by the results( pathogens found in 80% of the tested product from these two companies). Bell & Evans did well, but the sample size was too small to yield conclusive results.

Consumer Reports has done a very good job lately of riding the food safety bandwagon. The news has proven disconcerting for most of us! It’s not that difficult to turn us into an anxious nation of worriers about our food safety. Tests and results are critical pieces of information, but we need to make certain we understand all the component parts.

Who do we turn to for results? The FDA or USDA? It doesn’t matter. As consumers we just need to know that the products we purchase have been inspected and the safety of our food has been secured.

Definitely not getting that feeling tonight!