Chlorine-Washed Chicken: Is Your Dinner Safe?

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Alternative Health, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Story at-a-glance

Conventional chicken is often soaked in chemical baths, including chlorine solutions, to reduce bacterial contamination — a practice banned in the European Union since 1997. Chlorine-washed chicken may absorb chemical residues through its porous muscle tissue, which raises safety concerns
U.S. regulations do not require processors to disclose the use of chemical washes or antimicrobial treatments on chicken packaging, keeping consumers unaware of what their food has been exposed to
Industrial chicken processing prioritizes speed over hygiene, with some facilities handling up to 2 million chickens daily, creating conditions that require chemical interventions to compensate for poor sanitation
Many conventional chickens are injected with water, salt, and phosphates to increase their weight by up to 15%, meaning consumers are paying for added liquid rather than actual meat
Choosing pasture-raised, naturally processed chicken supports humane farming, cleaner processing practices, and higher-quality nutrition while reducing reliance on chemical interventions

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to Dr. Mercola's Cellular Wisdom, where we get up close and personal
0:04.6	with the secrets lurking right under our noses and sometimes on our dinner plates. I'm Ethan Foster,
0:10.1	your unassuming observer of modern life. And I'm Alara Sky, the cheeky voice of reason who's
0:14.5	perfectly comfortable telling you there might be more in your chicken than just, well, chicken.
0:19.6	In today's episode, we're talking about everyone's favorite dinner staple and exactly what it might have been dunked in before it reached your chicken than just, well, chicken. In today's episode, we're talking about everyone's favorite dinner staple and exactly what
0:23.6	it might have been dunked in before it reached your kitchen.
0:26.3	I have to say, Alara, when I think of a soothing bath, my mind goes straight to candles,
0:30.2	lavender oil, and maybe some fancy bath salts.
0:33.0	It never occurred to me to toss a few poultry carcasses into a tub of chlorine.
0:36.6	The concept of your dinner
0:37.5	poultry getting the same treatment as a public pool is, shall we say, a buzzkill. But that is exactly
0:43.2	what happens with a lot of conventional chicken. They call it chemical intervention. But that's an
0:47.6	interesting term for what is really just bleaching and bathing. Not exactly a spa experience,
0:51.7	unless you happen to be a microbe. Why do they do this? Have we all collectively run out of soap and hot water?
0:57.0	It's all about scale, Ethan, and that's where things get a bit jaw-dropping.
1:00.0	Ever heard of processing 2 million chickens a day in a single plant?
1:03.0	Two million? That's about how many telemarketers call me every afternoon.
1:07.0	Exactly. Imagine your phone lines jammed with poultry. Or better yet, picture 35 football
1:12.8	fields covered in birds. That's the level of production we're dealing with in some industrial
1:16.7	operations. When you're processing that many chickens at breakneck speed, well, corners get cut,
1:22.7	hygiene corners specifically. So the solution is to dip everything in chlorine? That's the quick fix, yes. After slaughter
1:29.4	into fethering, conventional chicken carcasses usually head into chill tanks, giant water baths,
	...

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