Whether you construct a “moist maker” sandwich a la Ross from Friends or simply bask in chilly turkey straight from the fridge, feasting on Thanksgiving leftovers is a quintessential a part of the vacation. Yet as thrilling because the considered additional helpings of stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie is, sure security precautions are so as to make certain the repast leaves you feeling happy — not sick.
Make certain your meals is recent from the outset
While most individuals fear about leftovers spoiling after being within the fridge for a number of days, the reality is that the meals may already be on its approach out earlier than you set it in.
For starters, it’s necessary to ensure that meals just isn’t left between 40 and 140 levels Fahrenheit for longer than two hours, because it’s inside that temperature vary that the majority foodborne-illness-causing micro organism thrive, says Leah Groppo, scientific dietitian with Stanford Health Care.
“If you were to go to a Thanksgiving buffet, you probably would see chefs come around with a thermometer in their pocket and testing everything on the line,” Groppo tells Yahoo Life.
It’s why, throughout an extended household dinner, it’s necessary to ensure that the meal is heated correctly all through — reminiscent of with a heated chafing dish — or, alternatively, will get positioned within the fridge earlier than that two-hour mark.
This is very necessary for animal proteins like turkey, which have a better danger of rising harmful micro organism than plant-based meals do.
“I think a lot of people will say, ‘Oh, my Aunt Susie always leaves the turkey out all night, and we’ve been fine,’” Groppo says. “That happens, but the problem with food safety is that sometimes it’s fine for family members, but if someone is immunocompromised or something like that, it becomes a bigger issue.”
As lengthy because the meals has been dealt with correctly, Groppo says that these still-fresh leftovers ought to final about 4 days within the fridge — and even longer for those who freeze them, ideally in a container with a vacuum seal.
“You can freeze things for a really long period of time because it really slows any type of growth of bacteria,” Groppo says. “Normally, we say, like, four months is fine in the freezer. After four months, it’s still safe, but that’s when you start getting freezer burn or dryness.”
How to securely retailer leftovers
Popping heat meals into the fridge doesn’t imply it is going to attain the secure 40-degree mark instantly — and it might probably take an particularly very long time to chill down if it is put into containers that don’t have quite a lot of floor space.
“It’s helpful to have whatever you store your food in not be very deep,” says Groppo. “With the increased surface area [of a shallow container], it cools down the whole product faster. If you put gravy in a very tall container, for example, the middle part would stay at an unsafe temperature range for longer than if you were to put it in a longer Pyrex dish, for example.”
It’s additionally value noting that your fridge temperature can go up for those who fill it with quite a lot of scorching meals, thus lowering the effectiveness of the refrigeration. Groppo says you can flip down the temperature in your fridge if in case you have heat leftovers and likewise let actually scorching gadgets (reminiscent of soup) cool a bit earlier than placing them again within the fridge.
Be conscious of reheating
It’s additionally necessary to contemplate temperature when reheating leftovers.
Kathleen Moore, a registered dietitian nutritionist on the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, notes that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has tips for temperatures to warmth totally different sorts of meals, and for leftovers, that magic quantity is 165 levels. And meaning all the dish a lot attain that temperature, so beware for those who’re microwaving and the middle stays chilly.
“It’s hard to reheat certain things, which may mean you need to chop things up into smaller pieces,” says Moore, noting that you need to use leftovers for various functions, reminiscent of turning turkey into filling for meat pies. “If people have questions about their leftover safety, there’s actually a hotline to call. It’s called the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline, and the number is 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854).”
How to not waste leftovers
About a 3rd of all meals within the United States results in landfills or incinerators, goes down the drain or is left to rot in fields, says Roni Neff, an skilled on food-waste prevention. Squirreling away leftovers actively works in opposition to the issue of meals waste.
“Part of the theme and messaging of Thanksgiving is to appreciate your food,” says Neff. “Doing everything we can to preserve that is key. That may mean having a bunch of food-storage containers available so that people can take home leftovers. You can pack food right in those containers to make it easy for people to take it home afterwards.”
That additionally means not giving in to overly cautious fears that not one of the meals left after your Thanksgiving sit-down is “good” anymore.
“We want to concentrate to foodborne sickness as a result of foodborne sickness is horrible,” Neff says. “But as a result of there are considerations about meals security, many people grow to be actually overly precautionary and throw out much more than we have to.”
