With Thanksgiving behind us, the holiday season is just gearing up. The next few weeks are full of good cheer and plenty of food. To help keep your holiday season healthy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is issuing holiday inspired food safety recommendations for your Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve, Three Kings Day, or other festive gatherings. These tips come from years of experience working to make sure that the meat, poultry and egg products you eat are safe, wholesome and properly labeled.
To start, download the FoodKeeper application. This smartphone and tablet app created by FSIS will help you evaluate what items in your refrigerator and pantry are still good and what may be past its prime. As you are putting together dishes for meals at home or parties at work, it will help you make sure you are using fresh ingredients. The FoodKeeper offers storage advice on more than 400 different food and beverage items and can help you decide what you can keep and what you should throw out. It also offers handy guidance on leftovers, which you will probably have after the big meal. Download the FoodKeeper today on your Android or iOS device.
Steps to Follow When Cooking a Holiday Roast:
Use separate cutting boards, plates and utensils for raw roasts and cooked roasts to avoid cross-contamination.
Wash items such as cutting boards that have touched raw meat with warm water and soap, or place them in a dishwasher.
To avoid overcooking beef, veal, pork and lamb roasts use a meat thermometer. These roasts should be removed from the oven when they reach an internal temperature of 145 °F and allowed to rest for three minutes before serving.
Turkey, duck, and goose should be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 °F as measured by a food thermometer. Temperatures should be taken in three areas of the bird: the thickest part of the breast, the innermost part of the wing, and the innermost part of the thigh.
Food Safety Tips for Holiday Party Buffets:
Keep hot food hot and keep cold food cold by using chafing dishes or crock pots and ice trays. Hot items should remain above 140 ˚F and cold items should remain below 40 ˚F.
Use several small plates when serving food.
Discard perishable foods left out for 2 hours or more.
Leftovers should be refrigerated or frozen immediately in shallow containers. Reheat leftovers to 165 °F.
If you’re transporting pre-cooked food to a holiday get together, keep cold foods safe on the way there by placing items in a cooler with ice or gel packs to keep them at or below 40 ˚F. If you’re transporting hot foods, wrap dishes in insulated bags or towels and newspaper to keep their temperature above 140 ˚F.
Top Food Safety Holiday Gifts:
Food Thermometer: a useful tool for even the most experienced cook as it is the only way to ensure that meat is fully cooked.
Cutting Board: using separate cutting boards for raw meat and ready-to-eat food is a great way to prevent cross-contamination.
Kitchen Towel: these towels should be washed frequently to avoid cross-contamination, so a home cook can never have enough kitchen towels.
Steps to follow mail delivered holiday food:
Check with the mail delivery company to ensure they send perishable items, like meat and poultry, cold or frozen and pack it with a cold source.
Foods should be packaged in a foam or heavy corrugated cardboard container.
Delivery should occur as quickly as possible – ideally, overnight.
Foods should arrive frozen or partially frozen with ice crystals still visible or at least refrigerator cold – below 40 °F as measured by a food thermometer.
Consumers with food safety questions can "Ask Karen," the FSIS virtual representative available 24 hours a day at AskKaren.gov or via smartphone at m.askkaren.gov. The toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) is available in English and Spanish and can be reached from l0 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday. Recorded food safety messages are available 24 hours a day.
