By Jessica Dominguez 

Clark County Health Dept. Health Environmentalist

It is that time of year again. Many of us are already busy this month preparing food for visiting friends and family.

This holiday season will bring many things, illness being one of them.

Here are a few food safety tips to avoid getting sick during the holiday season.

The simplest and most impactful thing anyone can do to avoid getting sick is to wash their hands.

Wash your hands often and wash them for a long enough period of time; about 20 seconds. Make sure to wash in between fingers, under fingernails and the backs of your hands.

Wash your hands before and after you handle food as well as in between tasks. If you handle raw meat and need to switch tasks such as prepping a salad or handling cooked food, wash your hands.

It might be irritating to remind your house guests about hand washing, but as friends and family gather, we inadvertently share our germs as well.

Wash your hands after handling animals or pets, touching garbage, using the toilet, blowing your nose or coughing, changing a diaper, caring for someone who is sick or dressing a cut or wound.

Have a plan for your holiday meal. Some things to consider for food safety are what you are going to serve and how you will prep it.

For example, if you are serving a turkey, how will you thaw it? A 20-pound turkey needs about four to five days to thaw in a fridge.

Thaw your turkey in its original wrap and lay it in a tray on the lowest shelf of the refrigerator.

The safest way to thaw any frozen food is in a refrigerator. Do not thaw any meat on a countertop. This can lead to the outside of the bird thawing rapidly and growing bacteria while the inside is still frozen.

Use at least two cutting boards; one for raw meat, poultry or fish and a second one for salad or cooked food.

Raw and cooked food should never be mixed, do not place cooked food on any dish or surface that had raw food on it.

Keep meat, chicken, turkey, seafood and eggs separate from all other foods at the grocery store and in the refrigerator.

Prevent juices from meat, chicken, turkey and seafood from dripping or leaking onto other foods by keeping them in containers or sealed plastic bags.

Store eggs in their original carton in the main compartment of the refrigerator.

Raw food and undercooked food can cause foodborne illness.

Use a food thermometer to ensure food is cooked to a safe internal temperature, here is a quick reference:

— Seafood: 145 degrees Fahrenheit

— Ground beef, veal, lamb and pork: 160 degrees Fahrenheit

— Ground turkey, chicken and other poultry products: 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

Let your meat rest for two to three minutes before you take a temperature. Use a metal stem thermometer and insert it about two inches into the food. Once your food has reached the proper internal temperature is it safe to eat.

Once a food is cooked, it is important not to undo all your hard work and let it get cold. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

Hot foods need to be cooked to the proper internal temperature and then they can be held at 135 degrees Fahrenheit. If any food is left out on the buffet table below 135 degrees for more than two hours it must be discarded.

Even if you cooked your food to the correct temperature it can still grow bacteria and make someone sick if it is left to cool for too long.

Refrigerate any leftovers within two hours (this includes all pies). Your fridge should be at 41 degrees Fahrenheit or below.

To help your food cool down to 41 degrees quickly make sure to separate it into small portions in separate containers.

If you want to eat your leftovers make sure you reheat them to 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Leftover soups, sauces and gravies should be cooked to a rolling boil for one minute.

Do not eat raw cookie dough or raw batter. Dough and batter are made with raw eggs that can contain salmonella or E. Coli. These items are intended to be cooked. Do not let children taste raw cookie dough or cake batter.

Some commercially-processed cookie dough is safe to eat in which case it will indicate on the packaging that is it edible cookie dough.

If you wish to eat homemade cookie dough or cake batter (Don’t we all?) make sure to use pasteurized eggs.

You can always tell pasteurized eggs because they have a red “P” stamped on the top of them. You can get them at your local grocery store and they take the risk out of any raw-egg food you make.

If you plan on making eggnog, tiramisu or a hollandaise sauce, use pasteurized eggs.

Most importantly, if you are uncertain a food has been stored safely or is still safe to eat, it’s best to follow the old food safety maxim of “when in doubt, throw it out.”

For more information regarding food safety, call 859-385-4453

Clark County Health Department offers a variety of services for the community and families, including well child, immunizations, family planning, WIC and HANDS. For more information, call 744-4482 or visit www.clarkhealthdept.org.