Holiday Food Safety Tips

Stay Food Safe This Holiday Season

We’ve gathered some of the best resources and tips to keep you and your loved ones food safe this holiday season.

Serving Up Safe Buffets – FDA (link)

Preparing Your Holiday Turkey Safely – CDC (link)

Say No to Raw Dough – CDC (link)

Learn about the 4 Steps to Food Safety

• CLEAN: Wash hands, utensils, and surfaces often. Wash fruits and vegetables, but not meat, poultry, or eggs.

• SEPARATE: Don’t cross contaminate. Use separate cutting boards and plates for produce, meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs. Keep raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs separate from other foods in your shopping cart, at home and in the fridge.

• COOK: Food is safely cooked when the internal temperature is high enough to kill germs that can make you sick. Use a food thermometer to be sure your food is safe. When you think your food is done, place the food thermometer in the thickest part of the food, making sure not to touch bone, fat, or gristle. Refer to our Minimum Cooking Temperatures Chart to be sure your foods have reached a safe temperature.

• CHILL: Never thaw or marinate foods on the counter, only in the refrigerator. Refrigerate perishable foods within 2 hours. Leftovers should be placed in shallow containers and refrigerated promptly to allow quick cooling.

Enjoy Leftovers Safely

To ensure that leftovers are safe to eat, make sure the food is cooked to a safe temperature and refrigerate the leftovers promptly. Not cooking food to a safe temperature and leaving food out at an unsafe temperature are the two main causes of foodborne illness. Safe handling of leftovers is very important to reducing foodborne illness. Follow the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service’s recommendations for handling leftovers safely.

Utilize the FoodKeeper App from FoodSafety.gov to find out how long foods in your home remain food safe depending on how you store them.