Ah, the holidays: a time for family, festivities, and food. But honestly, sometimes there's just too much of all three. Just as nosy in-laws can be tricky to deal with, so can all those leftovers.

This season offers a host of scenarios for food safety fiascoes. People tend to make unfamiliar food in unfamiliar quantities -- a standing rib roast for 12, maybe -- and sometimes rely on questionable techniques (cooking stuffing inside the bird, for instance, could be a disaster waiting to happen if you're not careful). In all of the frenzy, you may forget to clean your cutting board with hot soapy water between handling meat and produce, thereby creating a veritable Club Med for bacteria. Plus, you and your guests are likely to linger at the table for several hours, nibbling on foods that have been sitting around as long as you have. And then there's the leftovers you pull out of the refrigerator days, even weeks, later.

How do you make sure none of your guests (or you), ends up queasy -- or worse? By following these rules for handling holiday food safely.

1 - Get your refrigerator ready. Toss anything that's gone out of date or that looks or smell suspicious, preferably before you go shopping for the big meal. Wipe down shelves with hot, soapy water: rinse and dry well. Then test the temperature of your fridge and freezer with a refrigerator thermometer (Taylor makes an easy-to-read one for $10.99, available at Ace and True Value Hardware stores). The refrigerator should be 40 degrees, the freezer 0 degrees. If neither is cold enough, then adjust the settings accordingly (it will take around 6 hours for the temperature to drop).

2 - Serve less food, or at least less-generous portions. Leftovers can become tainted well before you put them away. Set out smaller portions -- enough for each guests to have one serving -- while keeping the rest in the refrigerator or oven, suggests Adrienne Starr, RD, nutrition-services program director for the Community Action Commission of Santa Barbara County, California. Replenish the spread as necessary. Just remember that cold food should be kept below 40 degrees, and that hot food needs to stay at 140 degrees or above, Starr says.

3 - Stick to the 2-hour rule. Nothing -- not even that big turkey carcass you don't want to deal with -- should sit out for more than two hours. Once food reaches room temperature, it enters the 'danger zone" (between 40 and 140 degrees), fostering bacterial growth and increasing the chances that someone will get sick. So what exactly needs to be refrigerated? 'Anything that has moisture in it is perishable -- which is just about everything,' Starr says. So while mashed potatoes may not seem as dangerous as your pork roast, they can indeed become havens for germs if you don't handle them properly.

4 - Think small. To be sure that food chills rapidly and evenly, Shelly Feist, executive director of the Partnership for Food Safety Education, suggests cutting large cuts of meat into smaller pieces and wrapping them in foil, along with placing dressing and other leftovers in shallow containers. 'Not only does this help food cool faster,' Feist says, ' it also helps to use the space in your fridge more efficiently.' With a marker, date and label containers so you'll know how old the contents are.

5 - Don't crowd the fridge. If you can't see all the way to the back, it's too full. To stay at the proper temperature, foods need air circulating around them. Toss any leftovers that simply don't fit in, or send them home with relatives who'll be more than happy to finish them off.

6 - Reheat before you eat. To kill any bacteria, bring all leftovers to 165° (gravy must come to a steady boil) before you dig in the next day. Not sure whether the dressing is hot enough? Test it with a kitchen thermometer to be sure.

7 - Freeze it, stat! Almost every holiday dish can be wrapped and frozen, from squash soup pecan pie. But if you're going to freeze, do it right away. Contrary to popular belief, freezing does not kill bacteria; it merely slows down their growth. The fresher a cooked item is when its frozen, the better it will be when you thaw it. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, casseroles, gravies, cooked meats, soups, and stews freeze well for two to three months, cooked poultry for up to 4 months.

It may seem cumbersome, but dealing with leftovers safely is doable. The in-laws, on the other hand -- well, we can't help you there.



Safe Bets
The holiday should be a time for rejoicing -- not recuperating. Keep your leftovers safe, and lean on one of these resources if you need to.

FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
(888-723-3366 or www.cfsan.fda.gov/~ird/advice.html#storage)

Gateway to Government Food Safety Information
(www.fooodsafety.gov)

Partnership for Food Safety Education
(www.fightbac.org)

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service
(888-674-6854 or www.fsis.usda.gov)

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