Thanksgiving Food and Home Safety Tips

The Strom Law Firm Offers Food Safety Tips for Thanksgiving Celebrations

Holidays are a time of happy family get-togethers and great food. However, holidays like Thanksgiving can also lead to stress, especially for those hosting Thanksgiving dinner or driving long distances to see family. Stress and a holiday cocktail can lead to an accident, which can cause serious personal injury to you or your guests.

The Strom Law Firm hopes everyone has a safe and relaxing Thanksgiving, and offers these safety tips for the kitchen to prevent house fires or food poisoning.

1. Keep smoke detectors in every room, especially since many traditional Thanksgiving foods involve using the oven for hours.
2. Keep a fire extinguisher no more than 10 feet from the stove, near the exit side of the room. Make sure your fire extinguisher is unused, up-to-date, and that you know how to use it.
3. Make sure to clean food waste out of your oven and from your stove top. Food scraps and grease may not normally pose a great risk, but when the oven and burners on your stove are being used for a long time, those pieces of food could char and begin to burn.
4. When cooking, remove jewelry and do not wear dangling sleeves. Also, if you have long hair, tie it back – not just so your hair won’t fall in the food, but so it won’t fall onto a hot stove top or over coils.
5. Never leave cooking foods unattended. Unattended cooking is the number one reason for house fires during Thanksgiving.
6. Open windows or turn on kitchen vents periodically. The stove can be a source of carbon monoxide, a deadly and undetectable gas.
7. Never dispose of hot grease in the garbage. Let the grease cool before throwing it away – hot grease can start a trash fire.
8. Since a major component of the Thanksgiving meal is the turkey, it is important to follow food safety tips to make sure food-borne illnesses are not get transmitted.
   1. Make sure the turkey is thoroughly defrosted before cooking. This will help make sure that the internal temperature of the turkey is high enough to kill food-borne pathogens like salmonella.
   2. Keep some utensils and a cutting board separate just for the turkey, and for other meat that might be prepared during the meal. After using each item, carefully wash it so that any contaminants are not spread throughout the kitchen.
   3. Do not put the turkey on a surface that has also had uncooked meat or eggs on it.
   4. Do not use surfaces for both raw meat and raw fruits or vegetables.
   5. Clean all utensils and cutting boards thoroughly after preparing the turkey
   6. The turkey is fully cooked when the inside, and the stuffing, reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Color is not an indication that your turkey is done!
9. Make sure to tightly deal containers of leftovers to prevent cross-contamination, and refrigerate within 3 hours after the meal to prevent growth of bacteria.
10. When the festivities are over, check around your house one more time to make sure the oven and stove are both off, that all food scraps have been safety disposed of, and that any candles or fires in the fireplace have been safety extinguished.

The Strom Law Firm Cautions South Carolinians To Consider Food and Heat Safety, and Wishes Everyone a Happy Thanksgiving

The Strom Law Firm was founded in Columbia, SC sixteen years ago. The experienced attorneys at Strom Law encourage South Carolinians to use caution when cooking this Thanksgiving, and call emergency services if accidents do occur. However, if you have used a product with all reasonable caution and the device still harmed you, you may be entitled to compensation. The South Carolina personal injury attorneys at the Strom Law Firm offer free, confidential consultations to discuss your case, including cases against turkey deep fryers. Contact us today. 803.252.4800.