Thanksgiving-Turkey
For many families, Thanksgiving turkey means leftovers. You have the turkey meat, the giblets and the bones of the carcass. Knowing the timeline to keep turkey leftovers fresh and safe will help keep everyone in good health! Below are our tips. Bon appetit!
Bones of the turkey carcass
For the bones of the carcass, stay-tuned for our upcoming blog on how to make homemade stock! Until then, freeze the bones of the carcass no later than the Monday after Thanksgiving.
Giblets or offals
For some families using the giblets or offals (e.g. heart), they may be cooked and used to create a gravy for Thanksgiving Day. Other families may feed giblets to their pets. If your household does feed giblets to your pets, you will want to fully cook the giblets to a safe internal temperature of 165°F. Why? Because, like people, serving your pet raw or undercooked meat or poultry can make them sick too (more information on pet food safety).
Leftover Turkey Meat
Once the turkey has come out of the oven, the clock counts down to when the uneaten turkey goes back into the refrigerator (at 32-40°F) and how long leftovers need to be eaten or frozen to reduce risk of causing people to get sick.
2-hour rule:
- Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours. This will stop any potential growth of bacteria that could grow at room temperature over time.
- If you have a buffet line, make sure that the hot foods on the line are at 140°F to stop any potential growth of bacteria that may cause sickness.
3-4 day leftover rule:
- Once Thanksgiving Day has passed, you will want to eat or freeze leftovers in 3 to 4 days (including the bones of the carcass). Starting the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, turkey leftovers and any other leftovers can become more of a food poisoning risk to your household. This is especially true for children under the age of 5 years, pregnant individuals, older adults (65 years and older) and immunocompromised individuals, such as diabetes and cancer. Their immune system is not as strong to fight off infection.
