Easy hacks to ensure the freshness of raw chicken

Gone are the days, when people had time to visit the butcher shops and get freshly cut meat. Over the years most people bank on processed frozen chicken available online or at super markets. Interestingly, there’s not much scope to ensure the freshness of chicken as most of the meats are processed, frozen or packed. Well, if you too have been blindly trusting and consuming chicken without ensuring that the chicken is fresh or not, then fret not as we have some quick expert hacks to understand that the chicken you are buying is fresh and worth consuming.

There’s no denying to the fact that chicken is rich in healthy fats, protein and helps in boosting immunity, but consuming stale or spoilt chicken can not only impact your digestive system, but it can also pose severe infections and disease threat. This is one of the reasons why ensuring the freshness of chicken becomes so important! Some of the easiest ways to ensure the freshness of chicken are checking the storage, packaging, texture, colour and smell of chicken. Here’s an elaborate low down on the details you must check while buying chicken.

One of the easiest ways to ensure the quality of chicken is by checking its colour, freshly cut chicken appears fleshy and pink in colour, the texture too is firm. However, if the chicken is old it gradually fades into a pale greyish colour. If the colour of the chicken looks pale, then the chicken isn’t fresh.

Another thing that one must keep in mind while buying chicken is to check for spots. Fresh and healthy chicken do not have red or pale yellow spots. Also check the frozen chicken for any patches or molds, which may cause severe infections.

Stale or spoilt chicken has strong pungent odour, with a slight sour hint in the odour, this is due to the development of pathogens in chicken. Make sure if the chicken has a strong odour it is not fit for consumption.

Most packaged or store bought chicken have a nice glossy texture, which often looks fresh. The best way to ensure the texture of chicken is by washing or rinsing it with water and if it still feels glossy, very soft, unusually sticky and mushy, then most likely it’s time to discard the meat. Fresh chicken has a firm texture.

Ensuing the freshness of icy frozen chicken is very difficult, while buying chicken from the supermarket. If there’s a thick layer of ice around the chicken, then chances are that the chicken has probably gone stale.