COLUMBUS, Ohio — Keeping your food safe, not just during the holidays but all year round, is imperative to keep yourself and your loved ones healthy.  

What You Need To Know

  • According to the CDC, food-borne illnesses like E.coli and listeria are on the rise because of improper food safety at home

  • Columbus Public Health says hot foods should be at a temperature of 135 degrees 

  • CPH also says food in the refrigerator should be now higher than 41 degrees and food should always be covered

According to the CDC, food-borne illnesses like listeria and E. coli are on the rise and experts say it’s because of the lack of proper food safety at home. 

Kim Gajda is preparing to host a Thanksgiving dinner at her home this year and is taking all the precautions she can to ensure her food is safe to eat. 

“We always have big holidays and big dinners and a lot of people maybe coming at different times. So I use a crock pot for like my mashed potatoes. And I thought this might be good to keep some of the other items at the right temperature without drying them out in the oven,” said Kim Gajda. 

That is a heating pad to keep her food at the proper temperature when it’s placed on the counter on Thanksgiving. It’s an apparatus that environmental health specialist Scyrita Hoover approves of and suggests everyone use. 

“It’s important still for your foods that are meant to be kept hot. It is important that you make sure that is kept at 135 degrees or higher. It’s kept hot, held at 135 or higher,” said Hoover.  

But while hot foods need to stay hot, it’s also important to keep cool foods cold. Hoover said to make sure the temperature inside your refrigerator is set below 41 degrees and that all your food in there stays covered.

“So I do appreciate the fact that she has her turkey stored inside of a pan, which prevents any sort of dripping. So in this case, this will be good. I’ll also look at cleanliness, which is really clean. I’ll also make sure that she has a thermometer inside of her fridge that will keep her on track with making sure that the food is held at the proper temperature,” said Hoover. 

According to Hoover, expiration dates are extremely important to pay attention to. Especially when you have lots of leftovers from Thanksgiving, keeping track of when things expire is critical to staying safe. But if you freeze your food, that halts the expiration process. 

“Now at Thanksgiving, we have these massive amounts of food. However, it is important that you know that you do again have seven days from the date that you actually prepare to keep your food,” said Hoover. 

Because of Gajda’s attention to food safety, she passed her refrigerator inspection. But she also learned something. 

“I was always under the impression that I had to kind of start counting the expiration date for my turkey once it was starting to thaw. So now that I know I can cook it on Thursday and we can eat it until next Wednesday, I’ll be looking for some new recipes,” said Gajda.