The Raw Chicken Experiment: Is It Safe To Eat Raw Poultry?

by Daniel Rubin

About two months ago, I came across an Instagram Reel that instantly peaked my interest. In the video was a man sitting outside in a suit in front of a glass of five raw eggs and holding up a raw chicken breast. The caption of the text in the middle of the video read, “Day 5 eating raw chicken every day til I get a tummy ache.” In the video, he takes a few bites out of a raw chicken breast, then he eats an entire raw egg, shell and all, and then finally ends it with drinking the glass of more raw eggs. Instantly, I looked at the account which was titled @rawchickenexperiment, and saw five reels of him eating raw chicken. I did some more digging and read through his Instagram captions and comments that he started the account because of an intrusive thought of eating raw chicken every day until he got sick. A week into the experiment he had already amassed over three hundred thousand followers. A couple weeks after that, publications such as People and The New York Post were writing articles about the man. In an interview with Vice, John (he chose not to share his last name), the Florida man behind the account stated, “I don’t think it’s the raw chicken itself that will kill you, it's more what they're doing to the animals in the factory farms. I'm getting the chickens from a farm half an hour away; they don't use antibiotics, chlorine or injections. They live out in the sun eating a natural diet, which is as normal as a chicken can be. It’s not like I'm testing Walmart chicken. I guess I'm gambling on farm chicken being safer.” As of March 22, 2024, John is on the sixty-fourth day of his experiment and over the past few months he has eaten raw chicken in every way possible. He has eaten it as chicken parm, chicken tikka masala, chicken caesar salad, chicken and waffles, and any other imaginable chicken dish. Many people thought he would get sick within the first two weeks, but he has proven to have made it two months. That begs the question of how crucial is the sourcing of poultry, and how much should we be concerned about salmonella or other foodborne illnesses?

John, Florida man who goes by @rawchickenexperiment on Instagram

According to the United States Center for Disease Control, “every year in the United States about 1 million people get sick from eating contaminated poultry” even if not all of those people are eating them raw. However, most Americans shop for poultry and other groceries at big chain grocery stores such as Acme, Food Lion, or ShopRite. A Rutgers University dissertation by Julie M. Fagan, Ph.D states that a key difference between factory farm chickens and free range are the antibiotics that are used in factory farms. Because the chickens in factory farms are forced to live in such close living quarters, farmers have to load the chickens with dozens of antibiotics to prevent the spread of disease amongst the poultry. “By not eating factory farmed products consumers are eliminating unnecessary antibiotics and other toxins in their bodies; such antibiotics can jeopardizes human health by causing diseases that are difficult or impossible to cure by aiding in the creation of mutant bacteria which are immune to many antibiotics.” This suggests that free range chickens are healthier than the factory farms. However, a study from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) states that, “all-natural chickens are no less likely to carry Salmonella” and concluded that free range chickens are just as likely to be contaminated with salmonella as factory farmed chickens.

Factory farm. Photo: Animal Equality International

In 2023, Netflix releaIn the Vice interview mentioned earlier, John tells the reporter that other cultures eat raw chicken as a part of their cuisine, including certain regions of Japan. In Kagoshima, a prefecture in southern Japan, raw chicken sashimi is a part of a local dish. Despite it being a traditional part of the local culture, the Japanese government has struck down on regulations regarding it. Last year, the health ministry of Japan warned the country to be cautious of eating raw poultry due to an increase in food poisoning cases because of Campylobacter. Campylobacter is a bacteria found in raw chicken. Side effects of Campylobacter are mainly stomach pain and diarrhea, but in extreme cases can cause Guillain-Barre syndrome, which attacks the nervous system and can lead to numbness or paralysis. A statistic from a Japanese newspaper, The Mainichi states, “Around 2,000 people are afflicted with food poisoning by Campylobacter annually” which makes it a rising concern with Japan’s chicken sashimi culture. Even outside of the United States, sourcing bacteria-free raw chicken is a concern.sed a documentary directed by Stephanie Soechtig titled “Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food” which shined a light on the dark sides of the food industry. In the documentary, the producers teamed up with IEH Laboratories to test one hundred fifty samples of Tyson brand chicken, the second largest food company in the United States and the country’s largest producer of chicken. The experiment revealed that seventeen percent of the chicken was contaminated with salmonella. That’s nearly one in six chickens. If there is truly no difference in the risk of salmonella between factory farmed chicken and free range chicken, then surely John should’ve gotten a “tummy ache” from his raw chicken experiment, right? Maybe the internet sensation has just been lucky for the past two months. According to the studies, the Florida man should’ve gotten sick by now, so what’s going on?

Poisoned film poster. Source: Netflix

In the Vice interview mentioned earlier, John tells the reporter that other cultures eat raw chicken as a part of their cuisine, including certain regions of Japan. In Kagoshima, a prefecture in southern Japan, raw chicken sashimi is a part of a local dish. Despite it being a traditional part of the local culture, the Japanese government has struck down on regulations regarding it. Last year, the health ministry of Japan warned the country to be cautious of eating raw poultry due to an increase in food poisoning cases because of Campylobacter. Campylobacter is a bacteria found in raw chicken. Side effects of Campylobacter are mainly stomach pain and diarrhea, but in extreme cases can cause Guillain-Barre syndrome, which attacks the nervous system and can lead to numbness or paralysis. A statistic from a Japanese newspaper, The Mainichi states, “Around 2,000 people are afflicted with food poisoning by Campylobacter annually” which makes it a rising concern with Japan’s chicken sashimi culture. Even outside of the United States, sourcing bacteria-free raw chicken is a concern.

A study from the USDA reports that, “the total cost for foodborne Salmonella infections in the United States is a staggering $4.1 billion annually and the cost for the loss of productivity to the economy is $88 million.” Because of that, the government has been working to crack down on salmonella cases in the country. In the fall of 2022, the USDA proposed a new plan to strictly regulate salmonella, including actions such as testing incoming flocks for salmonella before entering the farm, embellishing monitoring from the Food Safety and Inspection Service, and “implementing an enforceable final product standard.” Salmonella and other foodborne illnesses have imposed a major health and economic blow on the country, and is still a major concern amongst the food and health industries.

When it comes to the sourcing of poultry, it can be important to a healthy diet. Free range chickens aren’t pumped with the antibiotics that are given to factory farm chickens, but it still doesn’t mean that they should be eaten raw. A significant portion of America’s poultry is still contaminated with salmonella, despite recent efforts by the USDA. Even in other parts of the world that regularly eat raw chicken, foodborne illness from bacteria in the raw poultry is a concern. When it comes to John’s raw chicken Instagram experiment, it’s hard to say how he’s made it this far. Statistically, he should’ve gotten his “tummy ache” by now. Whether it’s the farm that he buys the chicken from, or recent regulations from the USDA, his experiment is still going. His current plan is to make it to one hundred days. For now, we’ll just have to see if it makes it that far, or if he finally gets a tummy ache.

Sources:

Instagram. (n.d.). https://www.instagram.com/rawchickenexperiment/

McCafferty, E. (2024, February 2). Meet the Man Who Eats Raw Chicken Every Single Day. Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/pka8qz/guy-eats-raw-chicken-instagram

Chicken and food poisoning. (2023, November 14). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/chicken.html#:~:text=CDC%20estimates%20that%20every%20year,sick%20from%20eating%20contaminated%20poultry

M Fagan, J., PhD. (2013). Taste and Nutritional Differences of Non-Factory Farmed vs. Factory Farmed Eggs and Poultry [PhD Dissertation, Rutgers University]. https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/45132/PDF/1/play/#:~:text=Chickens%20that%20are%20kept%20in,on%20which%20option%20you%20choose

Soechtig, S. (Director). (2023, August 2). Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your food. Netflix.

Beach, H. (2023, August 3). Nexflix’s Poisoned sheds light on grocery store chicken contamination. Mashed. https://www.mashed.com/1356499/netflix-poisoned-sheds-light-grocery-store-chicken-contamination/

Japan sees rise in food poisoning from eating raw chicken. (2023, July 17). The Mainichi. https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20230714/p2a/00m/0li/013000c#:~:text=Some%20regions%2C%20such%20as%20Kagoshima,of%20cases%20occur%20at%20restaurants

USDA releases proposed regulatory framework to reduce salmonella infections linked to poultry products. (2022, October 14). USDA. https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2022/10/14/usda-releases-proposed-regulatory-framework-reduce-salmonella#:~:text=WASHINGTON%2C%20Oct.,illnesses%20attributed%20to%20these%20products