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Food Safety Tips to Keep the "Happy" in Holidays

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

Nothing kills the after-glow of a holiday gathering worse than a case of food poisoning that you picked up from your aunt's under-cooked turkey or your brother-in-law's homemade egg nog.

So, to help keep everyone festive throughout the holidays, the food safety experts at Pritzker | Ruohonen & Associates offer the following guidelines to keep your kitchens merry. The list is based on advice from the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

Keep it clean and don't cross-contaminate:

• Do not rinse raw meat and poultry before cooking. It enables bacteria to spread more easily on countertops.
• Keep raw meat, poultry and seafood away from fruits, vegetables and other foods you eat raw -- including in the grocery cart while you're shopping.
• Consider using one cutting board for foods that will be cooked (meat, poultry, seafood) and another one for ready-to-eat foods like bread, veggies and fruit.
• Don't place cooked meat on any unwashed plate that carried raw meat.
• Keep hands washed (for 20 seconds at a time with warm water and soap), food surfaces clean and be sure to rinse fruits and vegetables thoroughly under running water -- using a brush to remove surface dirt.

Cook it right and kill the bacteria:

• When cooking meat and poultry, use a food thermometer. Color is not a reliable indicator of doneness. For a turkey, that means a temperature of 165 degrees with the termometer stuck into the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast. If the turkey is stuffed, the stuffing termperature also should read 165 degrees.
• Bring sauces, soups and gravies to a rolling boil when reheating.
• Cook eggs until yolks and whites are firm. Don't use raw eggs for eggnog.  Instead, use pasteurized egg products or powdered egg whites.
• Don't eat uncooked cookie dough and don't feed it to children. Raw eggs in the batter may contain Salmonella.

Freezing, thawing and refrigeration:

• Never defrost food on the kitchen counter. Let it thaw in a refrigerator set no higher than 40 degrees. If you're in a hurry, use cold running water or thaw it in the microwave oven. Food thawed in cold water or the microwave should be cooked right away.
• A 20-pound frozen turkey needs four to five days to thaw in the fridge.
• If you pull something out of the refrigerator and it smells or looks funny, don't taste it. Throw it out. When in doubt, throw it out.
• Refrigerate leftovers or takeout food within two hours.

Symptoms of foodborne illness -- stomach pain, vomitting and diarrhea -- usually are not long-lasting in healthy people. But they should be taken seriously, especially in seniors, infants, young children, pregnant women and people who have weakened immune systems.

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on December 21, 2008 (boomark / email).