Be Safe When Prepping Holiday Feasts

One of the best parts of Christmas, or any holiday, is the food.

What's your favorite part of Christmas dinner? The turkey or ham? The sides? The desserts?

All you have to do to put a smile on my sister's face is say the words “corn pudding,” and me, I'll knock over my best friend to get to the pecan pie.

Whether you're gobbling roast beast, razzleberry dressing, the last can of Who Hash, or the more traditional ham or turkey with all the trimmings, food safety is important.

After all, food poisoning is definitely a gift that keeps on giving and one you can't return the next day. Botulism and salmonella are right up there with lumps of coal in your stocking when it comes to gifts you don't want.

Clemson University's Home and Garden Information Center has a lot of information to help you and your family safely enjoy your holiday feasts and all the leftovers.

According to the HGIC, the most common cause of foodborne illnesses is unwashed hands.

Officials recommend you:

Always wash your hands in hot, soapy water before preparing food and after using the bathroom, changing diapers and handling pets.

Wash your hands again after touching raw meat, poultry or seafood and before handling ready-to-eat foods.

Use warm water to get your hands wet, add soap and rub hands together for 20 seconds before rinsing carefully.

Another danger is cross-contamination, especially when kitchen utensils are used to prepare raw poultry and then not thoroughly washed before being used on other foods.

Officials recommend you:

Wash cutting boards, knives, utensils and counter tops in hot, soapy water after preparing each food item and before going on to the next one.

Use one cutting board for raw meat, poultry or seafood and a different cutting board for ready-to-eat foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables.

Sanitize cutting boards and other surfaces that have been in contact with raw meat, poultry or seafood. To sanitize, immerse the item in a solution of 1 tablespoon liquid, unscented, chlorine bleach per gallon of warm, not hot, water and leave for several minutes. Plastic cutting boards can also be sanitized in a dishwasher using the wash and dry cycle.

Sanitize a non-metal kitchen sponge by heating it while still wet in a microwave oven for one minute. Avoid burns by allowing the sponge to cool before using it. Or rinse and squeeze out sponge and put through the wash and dry cycle of a dishwasher.

Use paper towels to clean up raw meat and poultry spills on kitchen counters and other surfaces, and to dry your hands. If you use cloth towels, do not reuse them if they have been in contact with raw meat or poultry juices until you wash them in the hot cycle of the washing machine and dry in the dryer.

Under-cooking poultry is like mailing out an invitation for bacteria to move off the bird and into your gut.

The color of meat and poultry does not show if it is safely cooked, so officials recommend you use a food thermometer to measure the internal temperature of cooked foods and cook all poultry to at least 165 °F.

Make sure that the turkey is completely thawed before cooking. Allow 24 hours for every 4 to 5 pounds of turkey thawed in the refrigerator. A 20-pound turkey will take between 4 and 5 days to completely thaw in the refrigerator.

Cooking overnight at a low setting (200 to 250 °F) is unsafe. Bacteria can easily grow under these conditions. Roast a turkey in a preheated oven set at 325 °F.

For the complete list of tips, including how to safely store leftovers so you can gobble them at midnight when nobody's looking, visit the HGIC's Holiday Food Safety Fact Sheet.