Contamination in real life does not come with labels

After working hard to prepare the perfect Thanksgiving feast, the last thing you want is for it to end with a bout of food poisoning or a trip to the emergency room. Yet about 200,000 Americans a day suffer from food poisoning, and as many as 1000 of them end up in the hospital. Fortunately, if you follow some basic safety precautions, you and your guests will have a healthy Thanksgiving, and enjoy peace and calm – at least until you hit the malls on Friday.

Your first stop should be the U.S. Department of Agriculture Seasonal Food Safety and Safe Food Handling web pages, where you can be reminded of general safe food handling techniques and those specific for Thanksgiving.

Multiple cutting boards can reduce cross contamination

A good quality wood cutting board is as safe as the newer plastic or silicon boards – but do you really have time to properly clean and sanitize boards during meal preparation? Cutting those fresh veggies on a board that initially held some raw beef or turkey, without proper sanitation in between, can lead to cross-contamination, one of the main causes of food borne illness. A set of different colored or sized plastic boards makes it easy to keep track of which food was used on which board, and are easily cleaned and sanitized in your dishwasher afterwards. The SiliconeZone 11×15 set, or Farberware set are good choices.

Digital is cool, but analog is inexpensive and accurate

For making sure your turkey is truly done, a good meat thermometer is indispensable. The entire turkey (and stuffing, if stuffed) should be at least 165 degrees throughout. A basic analog meat thermometer such as the Taylor Analog Instant Read can be found for under $7 – a small investment considering the benefits. If you’d rather get a digital meat thermometer, you might as well go whole hog (or turkey as the case may be). With two probes so you can cook two items at once, and a remote wireless monitor so you can check the temperature without getting up every five minutes, the Maverick ET-7 wireless should do the trick.

Finally and perhaps most important: while preparing the meal, remember to wash your hands often. Use soap and water, not Purel or other hand sanitizers – those should be used only when soap and water is not available.

Follow these simple precautions and your family and guests will not just enjoy Thanksgiving, they’ll enjoy the day after as well.

For more information:

• USDA Safe food handling facts
• USDA Countdown to Thanksgiving