Food Poisoning in "Fully Cooked" Products

[claudio]

(I posted this in the "Experiences" forum accidently, and figured it is better suited here. The other thread can be deleted.)

I bought some chicken yesterday, and the package said it was fully cooked. I microwaved it for about 2 minutes (twice the length of time that it said to microwave it on the packaging) and parts of it were still cold. I ate it anyway, however, because I was extremely hungry. Does this sound like a recipe for food poisoning? It's been about 16 hours so far and I still feel fine.

[Jill in Apartment 413]

If it was fully cooked it should be fine. I've had fully coocked chicken sausage from the package that was still a bit cold in places and I was fine. (Freaked me out too though) You'll be fine

[olschesky]

it was fully cooked....so you're good. my husband eats cold chicken (fully cooked) all the time......

[claudio]

Thanks a lot! I still don't have any symptoms, so I assume I'm in the clear...

I was concerned because I looked it up online and people seemed to think that chicken is so easily contaminated that even though it's cooked, if you don't cook it again before eating you're still putting yourself at risk, and they were making it sound as if the risks were pretty severe. For instance, if one leaves chicken out on their counter for more than a couple hours, they have a very good chance (supposedly) of getting poisoned. Any thoughts?

[mooki]

I'm not an expert on this topic, but I think the issue with chicken is salmonella and that's why it needs to be fully cooked through. Obviously any meat left sitting around at room temperature for long periods of time will be problematic. The rotting of meat is a gradual process that begins from the moment the animal is killed until it becomes so overgrown with bacteria that the smell and color change. Somewhere in between that period of time the bacterial/toxin count is low enough for it to still be edible. It's hard to say where the danger zone line because different people can tolerate bacteria and toxins differently. I think humans can eat raw red meat if it's fresh and not worry about food poisoning, unless of course there's and e. coli outbreak. Same with seafood/sushi. Chicken seems to be a special case though and should never be eaten raw.

[claudio]

OK, so I think I'm fine now, but just for a final confirmation:

If the chicken was fully cooked and packaged in a sealed container, then there is no chance that any bacteria could have contaminated it before I ate it? Basically, chicken will only be contaminated if you either don't cook it or leave it out at room temperature for too long?