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For now, the best safeguard is to clean up kitchen techniques in homes and restaurants. The basic instructions: cook poultry until the juices run clear, | and thoroughly wash hands and food preparation surfaces as well as all plates and utensils that come into contact with raw poultry. Dane Bernard, director of microbiology at the National Food Processors Association, asserts that proper handling by cooks could reduce the number of salmonella infections at least 75%. Caution is the key. Warns Joseph Madden of the Food and Drug Administration's microbiology division: "The consumer should assume that any poultry product has bacteria on it."