Food Safety Tips at Christmas
By Gaye Rutherford, Dietitian

For many children, the big treat they look forward to at Christmas is a visit from Santa. But others like me look forward more to the joy of sharing some great homemade meals with family and friends, especially on Christmas Day itself. Many of these meals are often buffet-style or served outdoors, and result in food often sitting for lengthy periods of time in warm rooms or outdoor areas. Meals on Christmas Day furthermore are renowned for their ability to produce leftovers that can be reheated or simply re-served repeatedly over coming days. Under these conditions, there are a number of very important food safety issues that we should all be aware of.

Please look after your own health and that of your guests this Christmas by following these tips from the Food Safety Information Council and Better Health Channel for keeping your food safe this Christmas:

The ‘temperature danger zone’ for food is between 5ºC and 60ºC, this being the temperature range in which food poisoning bacteria grow best. As a result, hot foods should always be served and eaten while still hot (at least 60ºC), while cold foods should be kept refrigerated at less than 5ºC until serving time. Any food left sitting in the temperature danger zone for more than four hours has to be thrown out.

Because of this, also never defrost any foods on the bench top at room temperature – always defrost either in the fridge or microwave (unless the food manufacturer provides specific advice to do otherwise). If you have a particularly large turkey to defrost for Christmas lunch, be aware that it could take several days to defrost in the fridge. If you don’t have the fridge space to do this, try asking your butcher to defrost it for you in his cool room. If you absolutely must defrost it on a bench top, you must make absolutely sure the turkey is cooked thoroughly to ensure any bacteria are killed – the only way to confirm this is by using a meat thermometer to check that the temperature of the thickest part of the meat has reached 75ºC.

Similarly, if you are offering yummy pates, dips and other perishables, only take these out of the fridge when you are ready to serve and eat them. And when this part of the meal is over, return any leftovers promptly to the fridge (or be prepared to throw them out).

To help free up fridge space for food, consider taking out soft drinks, alcohol, pickles, jams and other acidic condiments that do not require refrigeration to remain safe. On Christmas Day, drinks can be kept cold in an esky or ice bath rather than the fridge.

When reheating any food, make sure it is steaming hot all the way through (at least to 75ºC). And always use up refrigerated leftovers within 2 to 3 days – if it’s been sitting in the fridge for longer, time to toss.

If you’re cooking a variety of meats, especially at BBQs, never place the cooked meat onto plates that have held raw meats, and take care that juices from raw meat do not contaminate plates or serving utensils intended for use with cooked products.

If you need to store cooked food for later, as soon as the steam stops rising from the food, cover it and put in the fridge. This is essential to cool the food through the danger zone as quickly as possible, and is best achieved by dividing your food into smaller portions or shallow containers. If you want to freeze the food – cool it like this first in the fridge and then transfer to the freezer.

Your Christmas Ham will keep for several weeks if you store it in the fridge in a clean cloth to prevent drying out (after having removed its plastic wrapping) and carefully follow any instructions on its packaging.

Most importantly, before preparing any foods and between handling raw meat or chicken especially, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and warm water and them dry them well. If you are handling foods at a BBQ, this might mean a trip inside to use the sink – for the health of your guests, make the effort.

Be aware that some people are more at risk of getting food poisoning than others. This includes many of those who are special guests at our Christmas tables – the elderly and children, as well as pregnant women and anyone with an illness (a hangover doesn’t count!).