DAY THREE
It’s day three of Brig’s food advent calendar. Today’s topic is three food health and safety tips for Christmas.
Tip One: Control the quantity of food that you purchase.
The first tip is to think about how much food you actually need before you do your Christmas food shop. Plan in advance and think about what can be reused for future meals to minimise the amount of food waste. The charity “Love Food Hate Waste” suggest that at least 96,000 tonnes of carrots are placed in bins each year within the UK.
It is worth remembering that the best before date of a food and the use by date are different. “Best before” relates to the day at which the food begins to decline in quality , in comparison “use by” relates to the date where if food is used after the date that is suggested , it may not be safe for consumption.
Tip Two: How to correctly prepare a Turkey.
Turkey is one of the most well known Christmas foods, so making sure you prepare it correctly is important. Most importantly do not wash your raw turkey, instead cook it carefully. Check the guide from the place of purchase for more detailed and precise cooking instructions.
If the packaging fails to provide insight into a cooking method , the UK Government recommends an oven at gas mark 4 followed by:
• allow 45 minutes per kg plus 20 minutes for a turkey that weighs under 4.5kg
• allow 40 minutes per kg for a turkey that weighs between 4.5kg and 6.5kg
• allow 35 minutes per kg for a turkey weighs over 6.5kg
Tip Three: Reuse Leftovers!
So, if you have followed the first tip and tried to avoid food wastage but still get some Christmas food leftover, you could divide the leftovers into smaller amounts and create a food calendar to plan when and how to incorporate them into your pre-existing meal plan. Foods like cooked turkey can be frozen, for a later date, although after it has defrosted there is a time limit of 24 hours during which it has to be eaten.
Feature image credit: Pexels photos
