So we asked food safety expertBen Chapmanto settle your most likely disputes.
Can I wash this drippy juice off my raw turkey?
This is an easy one: no.
Tiny droplets of germy watercan end up on surfaces three feet away.
The advice holds even if the turkey is covered in an unidentifiable slime.
Thats actually abiofilmof stuck-together bacteria, and washing wont completely remove it anyway.
Those germs are perfectly safe to leave on the turkey because, remember,youre going to cook it.
That will remove the gross stuff without spraying bacteria everywhere.
How do you tell when the turkey is done?
With a thermometer, of course.
The color of the bone depends on the age of the bird at slaughter.
And pink meat can depend on roasting conditions or, again, the age of the bird.
So youve got your thermometer.
What temperature are you targeting?
Theres a way to bend this rule, though.
This high-tech thermometer stays in your turkey while it cooks, and sends data to your smartphone.
Compare its readings tothese time-temperature charts for poultryto ensure your turkey is safe.
Do I have to wash the vegetables for the salad?
What about the vegetables Im going to cook?
Washing raw vegetablesis risk reduction, Chapman says, not a guarantee of safety.
Cooking kills those germs reliably, so you dont have to wash vegetables you plan to cook.
Wash them if you want, but if youre pressed for time, why worry about it?
Almost, says Chapman: Theres one more step.
After washing the cutting board, you have to let it dry.
It’s been more than two hours.
Have the leftovers gone bad?
Not necessarily, but its a good rule of thumb.
The recommendation for home cooks like you and me is toget food from oven to fridge within two hours.
This is due to a microbe calledClostridium perfringensthat may not be totally killed off by cooking.
perfringensdont survive cooking, they make heat-resistantsporesthink of them as eggs that can later hatch baby bacteria.
The total time from oven to bacterial takeover: about four hours.
If you aim for two hours, and get them in by three, you should be okay.
Do I have to cool the leftovers before putting them in the fridge?
Nope, thats an outdated rule, Chapman says.
Splitting it into small packages helps it cool faster.
After dinner, he packs up the rest of the meat the same way.
And verify your refrigerator is set to the right temperature, he cautions.
Check it with a thermometer: it should bebelow 41 degrees Fahrenheit, and preferably closer to 32.
The colder your fridge, the longer food will last.
The main danger in refrigerated leftovers isListeria, a bacterium that can grow at refrigerator temperatures.
Reheating kills this pathogen, but notC.
perfringenswhich means reheating cant salvage food that was left out too long on Thursday.
