The holidays are here, and the Fulton County Board of Health wants to make sure food safety is also being served on the menu. From the grocery store to the dinner table, the FCBOH urges the public to follow food safety measures this Thanksgiving and throughout the holiday season.

“This time of year, the focus is on gatherings and spending time with loved ones, and we know that food is a central component to all of that. We want to make sure that year-round, and especially on Thanksgiving and during the holidays, that people are following food safety protocols to make sure everyone has a fun and healthy holiday season,” says Environmental Health Director Dr. Brandon Leftwich.

Here are a few tips to make sure your holiday spread is safe.

Let’s start with the main entrée of the day, the Thanksgiving turkey:

• While at the grocery store, make sure the turkey you choose is completely frozen and there are no rips in the packaging.
• Once you make it home, be sure to put it back in the freezer if Thanksgiving is still more than a week away. The thawing process will depend on the weight of your turkey.
• According to the USDA, when thawing in a refrigerator, allow roughly 24 hours for every four to five pounds. And when thawing in cold water, allow for about 30 minutes per pound.

Now, it’s time to cook:

• Once thawed, cook the turkey immediately. Please remember that raw poultry may contain bacteria which can cause foodborne illnesses, so be sure to clean and sanitize any surfaces that come into contact with the turkey or its juices.
• There are many ways to cook a turkey, but make sure that whichever method you choose, it reaches an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit, as measured by a food thermometer. And if you’re stuffing your turkey, the stuffing must also reach the same temperature in the center to be considered fully cooked.

Now that we made it past the cooking part, it’s time to serve the turkey and the rest of the food:

• Be sure to remember the two-hour rule when serving large groups. Perishable foods that have sat out at room temperature for more than two hours are unsafe and must be thrown away.
• When serving food, keep hot food hot and cold food cold. This will help prevent harmful bacteria from forming on any food. You can do so by serving them in warming trays, slow cookers, or leaving dishes on ice.   

With such delicious food, we tend to like to keep leftovers after a Thanksgiving feast, but be careful when doing so:

• For leftovers to be safe to keep, they must be refrigerated within two hours of serving or have been kept hot or cold at specific temperatures.
• Be sure to throw away any food that has sat out for more than two hours at room temperature.
• If you have leftover turkey, be sure to cut the remaining bird into smaller pieces and place them into a small container so the meat can cool evenly and quickly.
• Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator for three to four days (which means you have until Monday after Thanksgiving to eat all you want before having to throw the food away).
• If you choose to freeze any leftovers, it’s best to eat them within two to six months.

If you follow these safety measures, you and your family will hopefully be able to enjoy Thanksgiving without any major foodborne illnesses.