Food Safety Tips for this Holiday Season

Festive seasons comprise glittering lights, new clothes, family and friends’ gatherings, and especially a wide variety of food and desserts. Eating delicious foods can make you feel happy, but you should also ensure food safety for the holidays. Most people are affected by food poison during the festive season. Here are some food safety tips to keep food poisoning at bay this holiday season.

5 Holiday food safety tips

Cook your food properly

Don’t eat raw or undercooked food because they contain bacteria that can affect the human digestive system. Cook your food completely, but don’t overcook. Cooking food for more time can destroy its nutrient values and is harder to digest than those which are cooked adequately. High-starch foods cooked at high temperatures form carcinogenic compounds that can lead to cancer.

Eat pasteurized food

Use pasteurized eggs and milk for food that needs to be prepared with raw eggs or milk. Bacteria such as Salmonella and other harmful pathogens may exist in eggs. Most holiday delicacies comprise eggnogs and tiramisu which contain raw eggs. Instead of avoiding these desserts, go for pasteurized eggs instead of normal ones. 

Refrigerate or freeze

If you are planning to consume a particular food later, then make sure you don’t keep it in the atmospheric temperature for more than two hours. Proper refrigerating and freezing measures help in some cases. Refrigerate foods that will decompose quickly. Cooked food can be refrigerated once it reaches the normal temperature. Make sure you use the refrigerated food within three days and frozen leftovers within one month. 

Wash your hands often

During the holiday season, there are chances to play games or do activities with many people. Do avoid infection with bacteria and other germs. Make sure you wash your hands with soap and water often. This is one of the significant holiday food safety tips which requires you to wash your hands,

• Before and after consuming food 
• After spending time with your pets
• After using washroom facilities
• During, before, and after preparing meals
• After changing diapers
• Soon after handling garbage
• After coughing and sneezing

Keep animal and plant-based food separated

Keep food such as meat, chicken, eggs, and seafood separated while shopping and when storing in the refrigerator. This would help avoid any fluid leaking from these foods into the veggies. Have a separate chopping board and knives for these types of food. After you use raw meats, poultry, or seafood, always wash the chopping boards, plates, and utensils with hot water and washing liquid. 

Avoid eating raw batter or dough

Make sure not to eat raw batter or dough made with flour or eggs. Consuming these may cause food poisoning as the dough or batter may have harmful bacteria such as Salmonella or E.coli and other germs that affect your digestive system.

Bottom Line

Hope these winter holiday food safety tips are useful for any festive occasion. This way you can prevent food poisoning and any other harm affecting your gut and other organs of the digestive system.