Should you wash your Thanksgiving turkey? What food experts say
Butterball, Urban Meadow and Shady Brook Farms Frozen Turkeys on sale for the Holidays, KeyFoods grocery store, Queens, New York. (Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
It's a question that comes up every Thanksgiving: Should you wash the turkey?
The simple answer is no.
What they're saying:
The United States Department of Agriculture advises not to wash your turkey, because doing so can spread bacteria through splashing juices, contaminating kitchen surfaces and other foods. Instead, they stress that it’s important to wash your hands before and after handling the turkey and its packaging to prevent illness.
When should you throw out Thanksgiving leftovers?
Dr. Chris Thompson, Professor at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Bariendo, joins LiveNOW from FOX to offer advice on when you should throw out Thanksgiving leftovers. Food safety experts say leftovers should be eaten within three to four days of being refrigerated.
Go ahead and rinse your cranberries, potatoes and green beans. But food experts say don’t — repeat don’t — wash the turkey before popping it in the oven on Thanksgiving Day.
They say that could spread the germs lurking on your turkey in the kitchen sink or nearby food. But it’s been a challenge trying to convince cooks to stop rinsing off raw poultry.
Why you should care:
Germs that can make people sick are common in the guts of healthy poultry and are legally allowed to be on raw turkey and chicken. The assumption is that nobody eats their poultry rare, and that thorough cooking will kill the bacteria.
What should you do with your turkey instead?
The USDA says the only way to kill bacteria on a turkey is to cook it to an internal temperature of 165°F, measured with a food thermometer. You don’t need to wash the turkey, but you should check the temperature in the thigh, wing, and thickest part of the breast to ensure it’s safe to eat.
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which provides official food safety guidance for handling and cooking poultry. This story was reported from Los Angeles.