The holidays are for spending time with friends and family while feasting on incredible food! Don’t let the party turn sour. Learn essential food safety tips for preparing, serving, and keeping leftovers.
With entertaining at a premium this time of year, it’s an excellent opportunity to talk shop about food safety tips. While ensuring safety applies to all cooking, it becomes especially important when you’re doing larger-scale cooking, serving, and storing for guests.
Serving Temperatures
When considering safe serving and holding temperatures, the FDA has a variety of recommendations.
Hot food: Serve and keep in chafing dishes, slow cookers, and warming trays, though some trays only heat up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (note: all recommended temperatures are in Fahrenheit). You’ll need one that holds at 140 degrees, as this is the required temperature to keep bacteria at bay.
Cold food: Items must be cooled from 140 to 70 degrees within two hours and from 70 to 41 degrees within an additional four hours. Your goal should always be to cool as quickly as possible. For serving and keeping cold, I suggest buying trays that leave space at the bottom for ice — some are specially made for this purpose, though you can always lay something on top of ice in another tray. Make sure you have towels on hand to soak up any melting water.
In general, it’s recommended that food is kept out at room temperature no longer than two hours!
Turkey Defrosting Tips
Defrosting a turkey is a topic that always comes up, mainly because it’s easy to get wrong but also easy to do correctly. Follow strict guidelines, as leaving such a large piece of uncooked meat out at room temperature can quickly become dangerous.
First, start defrosting before Thanksgiving morning. The safest and best way is to thaw in the refrigerator, since it stays cold the entire time and prevents the growth of harmful bacteria. As long as you have enough time — 24 hours for every four or five pounds of turkey — this is the easiest and safest method.
Your refrigerator should be set to 40 degrees. Leave the turkey in its original wrapping, place it on a pan or tray, and keep it at the bottom of your fridge so any leaking juices don’t contaminate anything else. You can also thaw in cold water, but that’s much more labor-intensive, and you’ll have to keep the water at 40 degrees the entire time, though it can take many hours to defrost.
Prevent Cross Contamination
While cooking, watch for cross-contamination, particularly between raw and cooked foods. The golden rule is to wash your hands often — this will eliminate much of the problem. Surfaces should also be cleaned regularly — cutting boards, knives, and other utensils, counters, sinks, stovetops, and pots and pans.
If anyone takes a bathroom break, they’ll have to wash their hands, too. Use separate plates for raw versus cooked, and if you don’t have enough, make sure to wash thoroughly with warm water.
What To Do With Leftovers
In general, you’ll want to save like with like when it comes to leftovers, as different fruits and vegetables can emit gases that aid deterioration in other foods. Always store meats, fruits, and vegetables in airtight, leak-proof containers or wraps. Each container should be on the smaller side so it cools faster — remember, we want to cool as quickly as possible to limit the opportunity for bacteria to grow.
Store turkey stuffing separately from the turkey so it can cool adequately, too. Take care not to stuff the refrigerator too full — there needs to be room for cool air to circulate so everything cools quickly and properly.
Use these essential tips to keep your holiday feasts safe and delicious!
Learn More: Do you know about the different smoke point of cooking oils?
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