adjl posted...
Now, saying that, it's just a risk. Nothing's guaranteed to cause harm, and if you're only doing it occasionally and never for really long periods, you probably won't ever encounter problems. It's still not a great idea, though, so maybe don't make a habit of it.
It's like the salmonella/
e coli
issue. Not every chicken (or raw egg) is going to have salmonella. For the most part, if you get raw chicken on other things or use the same knife/cutting board or otherwise cross-contaminate, you're not going to get sick. It's a
risk
, not a guaranteed problem. You're really only in trouble if your chicken actually has salmonella.
But since you can't know for sure whether or not your chicken
does
have salmonella, the easiest way to avoid getting sick is to act like
all
chicken has it. Because then you're always taking the necessary precautions to prevent contamination or undercooking or the other ways that you can infect yourself with it. Sure, that means you might be overreacting 99 times out of 100, but it also means you'll be doing everything in your power to be safe when you DO get chicken that has salmonella.
Same with raw meat. Not all ground beef at your local store is going to have
e coli
, and if you just grabbed a handful of raw meat and ate it you'd probably be fine. But some meat will definitely have
e coli
, and since you won't know whether or not it does, you're better off treating all raw meat as if it does to protect yourself.