Food Safety Tips for Christmas Lunch

Top Tips for a Christmas free from Food Poisoning

Since the turkey was introduced from North America in the seventeenth century it has become the mainstay of the traditional British Christmas dinner. Every year nearly 10 million turkeys are sold during the Christmas run-up. Poultry, such as turkey, goose and chicken, can cause food poisoning if not cooked properly. Combined with this, is the fact that over Christmas, many people find themselves cooking for more people than they are used to and therefore handling larger amounts of food. This leaflet provides advice on prevention of food poisoning over the festive period.

Planning

• Make sure that you have enough fridge and freezer space.
• If you buy a frozen bird ensure that it is allowed time to properly defrost, if it's still partially frozen the recommended cooking times won't be long enough to cook it thoroughly leading to survival of bacteria and potential food poisoning.
• Defrosting should be carried out either in the refrigerator or in a cool room. A good guide for defrosting in the fridge is 12 hours per kg, and in a cool room (15^oC) is 7 hours per kilo. An 8 kg (17.5 lb) turkey will take 4 days to thaw in the fridge. At the end of thawing a look inside the body cavity should reveal no ice crystals, also the legs should not be stiff but move freely - if there are still ice crystals and/or the legs are a little stiff, more defrosting time will be required (always follow the instructions on the packaging).
• Remember 1 kg is equivalent to 2.2 lb, so depending on whether you prefer metric or imperial you will need to make any necessary conversions to recipes/cooking instructions/etc.

Cooking

• For roasting it is recommended that birds are cooked for 40 minutes per kg at 190^oC. As such, an 8kg bird will take 320 minutes (5h 20 min). Follow any instructions on the packaging.
• Never part cook poultry the night before.
• Ensure that the turkey is thoroughly cooked, part the skin between the leg and breast, if it's still a little pink then allow extra cooking time. Juices should run clear not pink.
• If you are stuffing your bird, make sure that you take the extra weight into consideration when calculating your cooking times. Ideally cook your stuffing separately.

Avoid Contamination

• Wash hands thoroughly in hot soapy water before preparing food and especially after touching raw meat and other raw foods.
• Keep cuts and grazes covered with a waterproof plaster.
• Clean equipment and surfaces thoroughly after preparing raw foods and before contact with other foods. Use an anti-bacterial sanitiser.
• Always store cooked or ready to eat foods on a higher shelf than raw foods in the refrigerator.
• Keep pets out of the kitchen when preparing food.
• Avoid preparing food for yourself or others if you are ill, especially with sickness and/or diarrhoea.
• Never use the same chopping board for raw poultry and ready to eat foods unless it is washed thoroughly in hot soapy water (ideally have separate chopping boards).
• It is not necessary to wash your turkey as adequate cooking will kill any bacteria and by washing the bird you may spread bacteria, via splashing, throughout your kitchen.
• Don't leave leftovers sitting around as food poisoning bacteria can grow and multiply. Cool any leftovers quickly before putting in the fridge. To speed cooling divide the food into smaller portions and put on a cooling rack (such as the rack from a grill pan).
• Avoid re-heating food more than once.
• If you do reheat leftovers ensure that they are piping hot.
• Ideally don't keep leftovers for more than 2 days.

Always follow the Christmas Code:

• Cleaning - Sanitise work surfaces and chopping boards.
• Cooking - Cook thoroughly.
• Chilling - Cool quickly and keep in the refrigerator.

And to ensure you prevent Cross Contamination - Wash your hands before preparing food.
And ...don't let your turkey knock the stuffing out of you this year!

The NHS choices website has further information on food safety.

The Environmental Services Section wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year.

For further information and advice please :

• Contact: Food, Health and Safety Team
• Address: Environmental Services, Eden District Council, Mansion House, Penrith, Cumbria CA11 7YG
• Email: env.health@eden.gov.uk
• Telephone: 01768 212491