Holiday havoc: Experts weigh in on how to ensure holiday meals are prepared safely

Grace DeRolph
Wed, 22 Nov 2023 01:15:58 +0000
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A Thanksgiving plate with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and stuffing. Credit: Michelle Stark via TNS

For many, the holiday season is all about warm gatherings and delicious food, but a fun holiday get-together can easily take a turn for the worse if food isn’t handled properly.

Ahmed Yousef — a professor of food microbiology at Ohio State — and Terri Gerhardt — chief of the Division of Food Safety at the Ohio Department of Agriculture — said foodborne illnesses commonly seen during the holidays include salmonella, salmonellosis and clostridium perfringens.

“The mishandling of turkey in the kitchen can lead to a problem,” Yousef said. “It’s not common to find salmonella in ready-to-eat foods, but raw foods can carry salmonella, including the turkey that needs to be thawed correctly, that needs to be handled without contaminating ready-to-eat foods like salads and things like that.”

Common symptoms of salmonella infection include cramping, headache, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Gerhardt said clostridium perfringens — a bacteria often found in animal and human intestines that can result in food poisoning if ingested in high enough numbers, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control — can also be the culprit of foodborne illness, especially around the holidays.

“When you leave food out too long after you’ve cooked it, and you don’t refrigerate it soon enough, [clostridium perfringens] can grow, and you get sick,” Gerhardt said.

Gerhardt said two hours is the maximum amount of time to leave food out before refrigeration.

“Symptoms of perfringens are vomiting [and] cramping, usually six to 12 hours after you eat, but it depends on the dose and how well your immune system can fight off things,” Gerhardt said.

Yousef said being safe in the kitchen requires patience and care. When preparing a turkey, specifically, he said allocating adequate time to properly thaw the meat is important.

“If it is a bird that came from the store in a pan or something like that, [sitting] it in the refrigerator for a day or two or three, depending on the size, would be a better way to thaw it,” Yousef said. “The FDA says to run it under warm water, but it is probably safer to thaw it by keeping it in the refrigerator for a sufficient amount of time.”

It is also crucial to dispose of the plastic bag of liquid inside the turkey, Yousef said. Though not all carcasses are contaminated with this liquid, the drip can contain microorganisms and pathogens that are harmful to humans if ingested, he said.

If individuals feel the symptoms of a foodborne illness coming on, Gerhardt said consulting a doctor is the most correct and effective course of action.

“It depends on the severity,” Gerhardt said. “Some people can get a low dose and not feel as bad as someone who got a higher dose. You might need medication for the side effects [to] calm the vomiting, help the cramping, etc.”

The golden rule for the holidays is “hot food should be hot and cold food should be cold,” Gerhardt said.

“If it isn’t that, you might want to investigate a little more,” Gerhardt said. “If the family Thanksgiving starts at 2 p.m., and the food has been out since 1 p.m., and you don’t eat until 4 p.m., you’ll have some problems.”

Overall, Yousef and Gerhardt said some of the easiest tips for a happy and healthy holiday include washing hands thoroughly and consistently between handling cooked and raw food, taking note of the temperature of food before eating and not rinsing turkey to prevent splattering salmonella.

Yousef said more information about holiday food safety tips can be found through the United States Food and Drug Association.