Holiday Food Handling Awareness

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The holidays offer a change of pace for cooking in many households which in many cases require more stringent food handling practices.

The Zanesville Muskingum County Health Department made an appearance today at the downtown Riesbeck’s to promote food handling safety as shoppers begin preparing for their Thanksgiving holiday get-togethers. 

“So food safety is obviously a big concern, especially around the holidays, so we have this event to bring awareness to some common Thanksgiving mishaps that might happen to prevent foodborne illness,” ZMCHD Health Educator Carleigh West said. “So a big one with storage is cross contamination is sometimes an issue. So improperly storing your food in the refrigerator, putting raw foods above ready to eat foods is a big thing.” 

West said that many shoppers are aware of poultry cooking temperatures but kitchen cleanliness and personal hygiene raises some eyebrows.

“And then for the other one, with leftovers and leaving foods out, sometimes people want to gather and talk to their friends and leave the food out for way too long. And that could lead to foodborne illness. So raising awareness and putting those leftovers into the refrigerator as soon as you can. Probably the most common and biggest one is not cleaning properly. So washing your hands, especially after touching raw foods and then touching ready to eat foods. That’s probably the big one,” West said.

For more information about food safety and foodborne illness, you can visit the Ohio Department of Health or the ZMCHD website.