As families gather for the Thanksgiving holiday and enjoy a Thanksgiving meal, it’s important to keep food safety in mind during your family celebration.

U-N-L Assistant Extension Educator Carly Applegarth says no one wants to get sick from a holiday meal.

“About one in six Americans actually get a food borne illness thru out the year….not just at Thanksgiving but one of the highest times that those food borne illnesses increase is around the holidays…specifically around Thanksgiving. The big reason for that is we have a giant turkey we have to figure out how to thaw safely but then people tend to leave food out all day, they might munch here and there and might not be thinking about if the food is being held at a good temperature. That is why we see an increase in food borne illness.”

Speaking recently on KWBE radio Applegarth says food should not be left out for more than two hours.

“The recommendation is food that should be cold or food that should be hot needs to be refrigerated after two hours. If it has been out for more than two hours. If it has been out for more than two hours at room temperature then you are at risk of food borne illness. If you do know you are going to have some stuff out all day you can work on having a cold hold or hot hold. If you have something cold you can put it in some ice to keep the temperature low below 40 degrees and it will be ok for a little bit longer, And the same for the hot food you want to keep I on hold above 140 degrees so you can put it in like a crockpot or a slow cooker. I recommend checking that temperature every now and then.”

Applegarth says food safety continues after the meal is done. She says when it comes to storing leftovers its important to properly store the food correctly in containers for the refrigerator.

Applegarth says you can store the leftovers for a few days or you can store the leftovers in the freezer for several months.

“Most Thanksgiving leftovers you are safe to keeping in the frig for three or four days. My general rule is after four days I don’t trust it. Or you can also freeze it and it should be good to go in the freezer for two to six months”.

Carly Applegarth of the Gage County Extension office.