How safe is chicken

I agree about common sense and there is ample publicity around about the dos and don'ts of preparing and cooking chicken goodness knows.

My point was that the authorities are more concerned that the product you actually buy at the supermarket (or whatever retail outlet you use) could be contaminated or at any rate unsafe because of the mbutt-production of chickens in those hell-sheds, not to mention the subsequent unsafe slaughtering and cleaning methods.

It may well be too late by the time you are in total sterile mode in the kitchen or at the barbecue apparently. We had graphic pictures of intenstinal residue in chickens that had been frozen and thawed! Enough to put you off them forever!

BTW - are there any actual butcher shops in the USA? I have just spent three weeks there (in three states and in cities and smaller towns) and I didn't locate one! Nor did I see a fresh fruit and vegetable outlet (we call them greengrocers). I was taken by friends to shop and accompanied them when they did their household shopping, so it's not that I was behaving like a tourist all the time!

I live in a suburb of a large city and within 3 miles we have at least four small specialty type butcher shops selling high-end produce including organic and farm raised. I have lost count of the number of fresh fruit and vegetable outlets around here - at least six or seven.

People here who actually shop (rather than busy busy people who do all their shopping on the way home from work at the supermarket) use small butcher shops and greengrocers all the time. They are busy busy places, and often sell out of the really good stuff by lunchtime.

I visited a Whole Foods in Fresno California and was MOST impressed. There seemed to be only one of these stores in a city of around 500,000, however, so I gather they are not the norm?

Please don't think I am criticizing, just curious that's all.

Cheers

Daisy

Carthage demands an explanation for this insolence!