What does Thanksgiving and the Super Bowl have in common, besides football? In the food safety realm, USDA food safety expert Meredith Carruthers says, for her and her colleagues operating the Agriculture Department’s meat and poultry hotline:
“Thanksgiving is our food safety Super Bowl of the year, from the actual football Super Bowl. We really lean into Thanksgiving because there are just so many food safety points to make and so many things to consider.”
If one thinks about it, the person responsible for cooking that Thanksgiving meal may be under stress for a myriad of reasons.
“A lot of times, tensions are high with timelines, with trying to impress loved ones, or the pressures of doing this for the first time, etc.”
And that could lead cooks to miss something in the meal prep process or take shortcuts that could result in a food safety issue. It also leads to questions—lots of questions—that the meat and poultry hotline has fielded for 40 years now. Meredith Carruthers acknowledges there have been some very unique questions posed to staffers of the meat and poultry hotline over the decades regarding Thanksgiving meal food safety.
“Somebody brined their turkey in a trash bag, then put it in the oven with the trash bag still on it. Now there’s melted plastic. Can we still eat the turkey? Somebody tried to thaw their turkey in a dishwasher or in the shower. Maybe some obvious, or even not-so-obvious, reasons we wouldn’t recommend doing that.”
Yet, one trend noticed by Carruthers is fewer of these unique food safety questions over time on the hotline. She surmises:
“People call and learn, and then, in theory, pass that information on to others. A lot of what we learn in cooking comes from cooking with others. And then our team, the meat and poultry hotline, plus the rest of our food safety education team, put out some very helpful resources. We develop partnerships, and we do as much as we can to really get food safety information into the hands of consumers.”
Available to answer that food safety question during the Thanksgiving season and any time of year: the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline. The number to call is 1-888-MP-HOTLINE. Food safety questions can also be emailed to MPHOTLINE@usda.gov.