How to store Thanksgiving Leftovers?

Thanksgiving dinner is the traditional way to celebrate Thanksgiving day. The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States, and Canada is a large meal, generally centered around a large roasted turkey. Even though you and your family felt as if they ate everything on the Thanksgiving dinner table, you still have plenty of food left over, and now you have to think of how you are going to store that food in the refrigerator. Below are some safety ideas for storing your holiday meal leftovers.

• Wash your hands with soap and warm water before handling leftover turkey.
• Remove stuffing from inside the turkey.
• Refrigerate stuffing in a separate, tightly covered plastic storage container or in a small shallow containers for rapid and uniform cooling.
• Take turkey meat off the bones with clean hands.
• Save bones for making broth.
• Dice turkey if you plan to use it in soup, turkey tetrazzini or other recipes.
• Wrap turkey tightly in plastic wrap or aluminum foil.
• Refrigerate or freeze immediately - within 2 hours of preparation.
• Arrange leftovers at least 2 inches apart in the fridge to allow cold air to circulate.
• Leftover turkey will keep in the refrigerator 3 to 4 days; stuffing and gravy should be used within 1 or 2 days.
• For frozen leftovers, ensure they are eaten within 4 days of being taken out of the freezer.

• Wash your hands, utensils and work surfaces before and after handling leftovers.
• Refrigerate leftovers immediately.
• Cold food should be held at 40 degrees or colder.
• Very hot items can be cooled at room temperature for about 30 minutes prior to being refrigerated. Frequent stirring accelerates the cooling at this stage.
• Refrigerate or freeze leftovers in covered, shallow containers. Food will cool faster in shallow containers.
• Place containers on wire refrigerator shelves to allow air to flow across the bottom of the container. This practice allows food to cool twice as fast as sitting on a solid shelf.
• An effective way to cool and store hot leftovers is in zipper-type plastic bags. Although the bags must be closed securely for liquids, they cool food quickly because they provide for a large, flat surface area exposed to the refrigerated air.
• Never remove a large pot of food (such as soup, dressing or gravy) from the stove and place it in the refrigerator. Large masses of food can take hours or days to chill properly and provide an ideal environment for the growth of harmful bacteria.
• Store leftovers within two hours of cooking. Discard leftovers if the food has been sitting at a temperature of 86 degrees or higher, for more than one hour.
• Date leftovers to ensure that they are not stored too long
• Do not put the food back into the same container it was in and never add leftover food to fresh food.

• Leave cottage cheese, yogurt, sour cream, milk, and cream in the containers they came in.
• But after transferring milk to a pitcher or sour cream to a serving bowl, don't return them to the original containers. Instead, tightly cover the pitcher or bowl with plastic wrap.
• Store hard cheeses in the store wrapping until you use them, then wrap them in wax paper, foil, or loose plastic.
• Plastic milk bottles make more sense than cardboard cartons, since bacteria can grow near the cardboard spout and enter a glass of milk every time you pour. Nevertheless, as long as you use the milk within its shelf life, it should be safe to drink.

• Keep fruits and vegetables separate and store like with like: apples with apples, carrots with carrots.
• Fruits and vegetables give off different gases that can cause others to deteriorate.
• Store fruits and vegetables susceptible to drying out in perforated or unsealed plastic bags to maintain a moist environment yet still allow air to circulate.
• Don't wash produce before refrigerating it. The dampness can make it mold and rot more quickly.