With an estimated one million cases a year, food poisoning doesn’t stop over the festive season.
To save you and your loved ones from a nasty bout of food poisoning over the holidays, follow our advice:
- When Christmas food shopping, take enough bags with you so that you can separate out raw and ready-to-eat foods to avoid cross-contamination.
- Check the guidance on your turkey to ensure you have enough time to fully defrost it – it could take as many as 4 days.
- Don’t wash raw turkey – it just spreads germs further by splashing them onto your hands, clothes, utensils and worktops.
- To work out the cooking time for your bird, read the instructions on the packaging. Check that: the meat is steaming hot throughout, there is no pink meat visible when you cut into the thickest part and meat juices run clear.
- Whether you cooked your turkey from frozen or fresh, your turkey leftovers can be used to make a new meal (such as a turkey curry). This new meal can then be frozen, but make sure you only reheat it once.
