Want to go shopping on Black Friday? It won't happen if you fail to provide some safety precautions in your food preparation on Thanksgiving. The Holidays are almost upon us once again, and some of you may be preparing your first Thanksgiving or Christmas celebrations in your own homes, while others may be preparing their fiftieth. We're all excited to have our loved ones rally around our festively festooned tables, oohing and awwing over our lovingly created culinary masterpieces. I love seeing my family's faces when they come to the table for a feast of my own making. Seeing their faces light up over a meal I have prepared is as much a gift to me as anything wrapped in shiny paper.
BUT, the last thing I want to give my friends and family is a case of the trots with profuse vomiting. Well, maybe one sister-in-law, but that’s another story.
Lets keep our loved ones safe this holiday season by practicing healthy food safety, shall we?
There are four basic food safety rules to follow to ensure your Holiday celebrations don't result in spending a day or two praying to the porcelain throne, not to mention possible trips to the Emergency room.
Food borne illnesses usually show themselves a day or three after eating contaminated food. Vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach cramps surely would put a damper on hitting all this after Christmas sales, wouldn't it? Not to mention the possibility of it becoming a life threatening problem for the elderly, infants and children, those with compromised immune systems such as HIV/AIDS and cancer patients.
Lets keep our loved ones safe by practicing the four safety rules form the FDA:
CLEAN: The first and foremost rule is to keep everything clean.
Wash hands with soap and warm water, using lots of friction for twenty seconds before handling foods. For kids, that’s the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday ", twice.
Wash all contact surfaces ( cutting boards, dishes utensils etc..) with hot soapy water after use, and before going on to the next item.
Rinse fruits sand vegetables under running water, and use a scrubber on potatoes or other foods with visible dirt.
Do Not rinse raw meat/poultry before cooking, as washing increases the chance for any bacteria they are harboring to spread to countertops, and sink.
SEPARATE: Don't give bacteria a chance to spread to other foods
When shopping, keep raw meats, poultry and sea foods away from foods that won't be cooked. We all know how disgusting it is to have a piece of beef drip juices all over our other groceries, not only nasty, but dangerous.
Use one cutting board for meat, another for veggies and fruit. Wash the boards in hot soapy water after each use.
NEVER put cooked meat on a plate which has held raw meat.
COOK: Color is not a good indicator of doneness.
"Use a food thermometer to make sure meat, poultry, and fish are cooked to a safe internal temperature. To check a turkey for safety, insert a food thermometer into the innermost part of the thigh and wing and the thickest part of the breast. The turkey is safe when the temperature reaches 165ºF. If the turkey is stuffed, the temperature of the stuffing should be 165ºF. Make sure oysters in oyster dressing are thoroughly cooked."
If you don't have a meat thermometer, and your bird doesn't have one of those pop-up thingies, insert a fork into the innermost part of the thigh, and check the juices. They should run clear, with no hint of pink.
When reheating, bring all sauces, gravies and soups to a rolling boil before serving.
When making eggnog, or other dishes calling for raw eggs, try using pasteurized shell eggs, liquid or frozen pasteurized egg products, or powdered egg whites.
Don't eat raw cookie dough which contains eggs. Yeah, that'll happen!
CHILL: Bacteria grows quickly on warm foods as they cool, so clear the table soon after eating, two hours, at the latest.
Set your refrigerator no higher than 40 degrees F.
Never defrost foods at room temperature. Place in the fridge for a few days to thaw a turkey. A 20# bird needs 4-5 days to thaw in the fridge, so leave room for him.
If you forgot to take him out of the freezer in time, use the microwave, or place under cold running water to thaw. If using these methods, cook immediately after thawing.
Lastly, if a dish looks or smells funky, for God's sake, don't taste it to find out if its spoiled.
Have a safe, and healthy holiday season, and good luck in all those preparations. Now, get busy.
Resource:
http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/foodsafetytips1113
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Comments: 47
I rinse chicken before cooking because salmonella is usually on the outside. Before I go cutting anything up, I want most of the bacteria off. I do, however, scrub my cutting board (and give it a splash of bleach from time to time) and run my knives through the dishwasher. I wash my hands a lot, too.
I think the best suggestion I ever heard was to use paper towels rather than dishrags or sponges to wipe counters off. Dishrags and sponges hang onto the bacteria, encourage it to breed, and then you wipe it all over the place! I've even watched people wipe the counter and use the same dishrag to wipe off a knife and put it away!
We have always eaten foods with raw eggs in them. We've even done this with eggs fresh from the farm with chicken poop on them. We have, however, washed those eggs off before cracking, and I do think this helps a lot with the salmonella thing.
A dishpan of hot, soapy water with just a splash of bleach is, in my opinion, the best thing to have in the sink when you're cooking. Toss all your knives and such in there if you want to re-use, then you just wash, rinse them off and you have truly clean knives. Same with cutting boards.
My family has always made stuffing inside the turkey, too, and no one even got sick the time my Aunt let it sit too long before cooking and the stuffing was spoiled! I ate some, too, and didn't get sick. ??? I even made stuffed turkey in the microwave and nobody died.
Makes you wonder, though.
Carrie: Really?
Nippy: You sound a lot more careful than my family! LOL!
That is one of the few things I miss about Kentucky. Those day old eggs are fabulous!
We are going to my mom's house for Thanksgiving this year YAY! Then on the weekend we are planning to cook a Turkey and few other Thanksgiving staples for a group of friends that comes to our house every other Sunday.
I have never used one, being an old hillbilly woman, but I know a lot of people think they are a great gadget.
That's what the kids are for.
A few years back, I bought a cutting board set.
One is for meat, one is vegetables and so on.
I would advise for everyone to invest in buying some.
LMAO...We had Thanksgiving at my Mother-in-Law's ONCE...the turkey was still frozen inside when she pulled it out all golden brown and pretty...It was at my house after that debacle!!!
A problem I had with my sister in law was to make her get the food into the fridge as soon as it was cooled.
hugs,
e
My Dad when he was alive and my Mom was sick, once cooked a turkey without even checking the inside - yep, neck, giblets, all of it, including the bag they came in were there.
We also get eggs locally, as our little fruit/veggie market always has them. I've looked at the jumbo size in the grocery store and laughed, they sure aren't jumbo anymore, but the local ones still are.
May I add a few: Don't use knives, spoons, sponges, hands, etc that have been used with raw poultry for any other use. Wash everything carefully that has come in contact with raw poultry items.
When nose drips happen (peeling onions and such) be aware of the tissue you use - throw it in the trash, and wash your hands after every sneeze, dab to your face, etc. Touching your nose, mouth, face can contaminate the next food you touch.
A few safety tips in the kitchen will prevent a lot of post-event heart and stomach ache.
Today is national clean out your refrigerator day, in prep for Turkey Day. Hubs and I have a job to do.