Not to brag, but I’m pretty good in the kitchen; I love a complicated pastry project, ferment things with flavor (sorry), and am probably above average at emulsifying a sauce. But there is one scenario involving cooking for others that strikes fear into my heart: getting them sick.
I am a doctor with special medical training in infectious diseases and public health. If I prepare a meal that sends my friends and loved ones running for the bathroom, I will never get out of the pit of shame.
I thought I knew all I needed to know about food safety to avoid eternal public humiliation. Still, as I realized while researching this story, even a do-it-yourselfer has a lot to learn about hand washing, cleaning surfaces and food, storing leftovers, and reducing non-germ risks.
Thanksgiving, and the holidays more broadly, are different from other times of the year. People are making more food for more people than they normally would, says Ben Chapman, a food security expert who leads North Carolina State University’s Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences. The resulting chaos means less control in the kitchen – which often leads to higher risks for both cooks and diners.
Here’s what you should — and shouldn’t — sweat at your next big holiday dinner.
Proper hand washing and drying is essential
Wash your hands – a lot. Raw whole turkeys are more likely to be contaminated with germs that can make people sick, most commonly Campylobacter and Salmonella. The big risk of touching raw meat in the kitchen is that you transfer those germs to surfaces that other people touch a lot. This increases the chance that people will get the dirty stuff on their hands — and in their mouths — even if they don’t directly handle the thawed turkey.
For that reason, Chapman recommends washing your hands more than you need to when preparing food for many people. Wash your hands immediately after touching raw meat — and forget about it Partially thawed turkeys can transmit germs.
Simple soap and water works well – it doesn’t have to be antimicrobial soap to do the job, but you do need to scrub the skin. All over the hand To really clean them, including the backs of the hands, between the fingers and under the nails. But here’s the real shocker, at least to me, when Chapman told me alcohol-based hand sanitizers are actually fine in most situations, even if you have watery turkey juice on your mitts. (One situation where sanitizer is inferior to soap: after touching meat with a lot of fat, like sausage or pork. In this situation, use soap to make sure you’re cutting through the grease to wash away all the germs.)
Don’t skip drying them. It’s not just the actual hand washing that’s important to remove germs from your fingers, Chapman says: Drying your hands after washing removes up to 90 percent of bacteria from the skin’s surface, so don’t overlook this important step.
“I can go through 10 dish towels on Thanksgiving Day,” Chapman says.
No need to waste tons of drying paper towels. Chapman recommends keeping different dish towels in different parts of the kitchen for different purposes, if possible. For example: You can put a “dirty” towel in the corner of the kitchen to dry your hands after you’ve handled a raw turkey. On a hook elsewhere in the kitchen, you can keep a “clean” towel that you use to wipe up sauce spills or other less germy messes.
Any system can easily break down when random people walk in or out of your kitchen while you are cooking. It’s not a bad idea to check the dish towel used directly in the wash after spilling raw meat juices or drying particularly gross hands. “I can go through 10 dish towels on Thanksgiving Day,” Chapman says.
Make it clear, not that
Don’t worry about washing your products. Washing the product removes physical debris like soil, sand, and dirt. However, it rarely removes the germs that make people sick. The reason: When produce is contaminated with pathogens, they are often attached below the surface, in the tiny pores of the fruit or vegetable that prevent it from being washed away.
“Fresh produce, unfortunately for us, is our No. 1 source of foodborne illness in the United States,” Chapman said. “And unfortunately for us as consumers, when it comes to me, there’s very little I can do.”
Take special care if you are going to wash your turkey. There is no food safety reason to wash your turkey, but many people do because of personal preference. Chapman prefers to wipe away debris with a hand towel (which he then throws directly into the washing machine). However, if you choose to wash your turkey, he recommends being especially meticulous about cleaning your sink afterward.
“The sink is a food preparation area,” Chapman says, “since people often wash lettuce or other vegetables in the sink and run water into the contaminated basin, which can spread pathogens onto food that isn’t cooked later.”
If you are a poultry washer, make sure to clean and sanitize the sink, including the bottom, sides and rim around the basin.
So if you’re a poultry washer, make sure to clean and sanitize the sink afterwards, including the bottom, sides and rim around the basin.
Sanitize your kitchen counters and other surfaces frequently. Because turkeys are particularly high-risk for contamination by disease-causing germs, Chapman is “bleach forward” about sanitizing her kitchen surfaces on Thanksgiving, and she advocates having a prepackaged bleach spray (like Clorox or Lysle’s) available. Done If you’re really worried about damaging clothes, “that’s part of the reason for having an apron,” he says. However, you can also use sanitizers that contain quaternary ammonium, which most non-bleachs contain. Disinfectant spray. As a bonus, it’s easier on stainless steel and utensils — and alcohol-based cleaners are pretty good, too.
Just don’t mix different cleaners together or spray them on the same surface at the same time, as doing so can release toxic gases that can cause serious illness or even death. Whatever you choose, stick with it—at least for the day.
Check your temperature
Cook your turkey (and everything inside) to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. The Türkiye and everything inside should be heated to at least 165 degrees before serving to kill any disease-causing germs. It is best to cook the stuffing inside until it reaches this temperature. Yes, doing it without dry turkey requires some finesse; Chapman roasts his stuffed bird at a low temperature of 325 for a long time and strategically places the foil.
Keep your fridge cold enough. The right refrigerator temperature is cold enough to slow spoilage, but not so cold that milk, lettuce, and other foods retain water content. Chapman sets his temperature at 38 degrees, which he says keeps leftovers good for about a week. He recommends buying an inexpensive refrigerator thermometer to make sure you have the perfect climate if it doesn’t have one built-in that you can calibrate.
Don’t bother chilling leftovers before refrigeration. The old rule of bringing leftovers to room temperature before refrigerating dates back to the days of old refrigerators, when they occasionally allowed the internal temperature to rise above safe levels for food preservation. Chapman says modern refrigerators don’t work that way, so feel free to refrigerate leftovers while they’re still warm.
Don’t bother reheating leftovers, unless you want to. As long as the food was cooked to the appropriate temperature during your feast and wasn’t left on the counter for hours before refrigerating, there’s no need to reheat leftovers to a specific temperature.
Avoid toxins in your cookware and in your air
Choose non-stick cookware and cookware made of wood, silicone or stainless steel. The best bet for cookware is to use products made of glass, stainless or carbon steel, or cast iron. Because of that Many nonstick cookware Made with “forever chemicals,” short for per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS), which have been linked to a variety of cancers and other health conditions. Teflon is one of them, but there are other PFASs out there, and manufacturers aren’t always transparent about which of the wide panoply of these chemicals are or aren’t in their products.
If you prefer nonstick cookware, a better bet is to use a pan with a ceramic coating. And if you use a nonstick pan coated with Teflon or other PFAS, you can minimize the release of these chemicals by using only soft (eg, non-metallic) utensils when cooking, avoiding heating when empty, and washing by hand. . Use a mild cleanser and sponge.
And for stirring anything in your container, it’s a good idea to use wood, silicone, or stainless steel. Black plastic container. Chances are- A small one though — They may be made from recycled electronic waste, so avoid them if you’re risk-averse.
Ventilate and filter your air when cooking – especially with gas. Gas stoves produce a lot of pollutants, so they usually must be installed with a range hood. Other types of cooking can also produce contaminants — for example, cooking with nonstick pans, grilling and frying.
Unfortunately, range hoods don’t always vent outside air — sometimes, they just recirculate it inside. So if you cook with gas, it’s a great idea to open a window and turn on a fan if you have those options, and a Portable air purifier can also help.
A little knowledge makes hosting fun and can go a long way toward minimizing the worry of your feast leading to a lifetime of infamy. Go ahead and feed your people!
