Base dietitian offers food safety tips for the holidays Published Dec. 18, 2015 By John Parker Staff Writer TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- The holidays and great food go together like the Air Force and open sky. Just as air safety is a priority, the days of feasts and leftovers are a good time for family and friends to brush up on food safety. Tinker's own Wendi Knowles, a registered dietitian with the 72nd Medical Group Health Promotion program, answers a few questions about some common quandaries that pop up for cooks and gobblers (the human kind) near the end of the year. What are your top tips for making sure food is safe and stays safe at holiday get-togethers? Make sure food stays out of the danger zone. That is colder than 40 degrees for chilled food and warmer than 140 degrees for hot food. The danger zone is 41 degrees to 139 degrees. You want to stay out of that range. That's a big deal. Another one is the two-hour rule. Two hours is the maximum amount of time for anything to be out on a counter or table. A lot of people leave things out all day, and it is very dangerous to do that. And that's for the wintertime. In summer, it's about an hour. What about pies and cakes? Anything that is a moist-type food tends to have more bacteria accumulation. One of them is a pumpkin pie; it shouldn't be out for more than two hours. It's made with milk and eggs and those are things that can go bad quickly. Pumpkin, cream pies, and custard pies -- those kinds of pies need to be refrigerated after a couple of hours. Think of pumpkin pie like a cheesecake. They both need to be refrigerated. Pecan pies are fine for leaving out longer, but all pies will remain fresh longer in the refrigerator. The inside of the pecan pie is primarily sugar-based. It's a bit moist inside, but it doesn't have a lot of the milk and eggs and those kinds of things that are much more susceptible. Fruit pies should be fine, too, because they're really mostly sugar based as well. Just remember that none of them should be eaten after leaving out for two days. Based on frosting, any cake that's got a whipped cream or cream cheese frosting needs special care. If we make a carrot cake with a cream cheese topping, that shouldn't be left out. You can set it out a little beforehand to get to room temperature if you prefer the cake that way, but you should count that time in your two hours that you're leaving it out. What about reheating hot foods after two hours? You could, but you'd need to reheat it thoroughly. Typically leftovers need to heat to 165, so you want to reheat it to make sure you're killing the bacteria. And then you're OK to put it back out again. To stay safe with any heated food, people should be using a chafing dish, crockpot or warming tray. What are some lesser-known dangers to be aware of? Leaving food out for more than two hours is a big one and can be tricky. If you're going to make a tray of cold cuts, for example, you want to use smaller trays and have many of them. You don't want to refill a tray that has been lying out that could have bacteria; you want a fresh tray with fresh cold cuts. Replace the tray, don't just refill the tray. Some people still put the stuffing in the bird and that's not recommended. The bird has bacteria inside of it, so if you stick the stuffing inside of it, it picks up some of that bacteria. Also when you're testing the temperature of the turkey, people will test the meat portion only and not the inside of the stuffing and the stuffing may not get heated to the appropriate temperature to kill that bacteria. Make stuffing separately. What precautions should be taken with leftovers? If you're making ahead of time, use shallow dishes to cool faster. Let's say I made mashed potatoes to store in the refrigerator to reheat them later. Not a problem to do that, but when you make them and you're putting them in the fridge you want to put them in shallow dishes and maybe multiple rather than just a big pile of mashed potatoes because the inside doesn't get cooled down appropriately and it will also heat up the refrigerator as well. So putting things once you've cooked them into shallow dishes helps the cool-down process be more across that whole product rather than just on the top portion with the inside not cooled down appropriately. Along those lines I recommend everybody have a food temperature gauge in their house. For food safety it is probably the No. 1 product I recommend. Every kitchen should have one and one should be outside with the grill if you use a grill. The kind with a metal wire is the best. You can put it in while you're cooking and make certain that everything reaches the proper temperature. You can also test the temperature of the foods in a warming tray or in the crockpot, so you can make sure they are at the proper temperature at all times. What about storing leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer? Use a container that is freezer compatible. Freezer wrap or freezer bags should be used, not plastic wrap or foil. Why? Freezer burn. Put dates on things and use within six months. If not stored properly, the contents won't last even six months. For the fridge, airtight is best. Plastic wrap and foil are not really airtight, and usually air is what can cause spoilage or bacteria. I recommend proper storage containers for long-term storage. Plastic wrap and foil would only be short term, and you should try to get the air out. Today, most containers are good for the refrigerators, but read your labels. Things will stay fresher and safer longer in containers. Another item people should have is a marker on your fridge so you can date those leftovers. My favorite saying is "if in doubt throw it out." If you don't know how long it's been in there, you should not take the chance. Sending friends and family home with leftovers is a tradition for some, too. What would you advise about that? The best thing to do is to refrigerate them after you have the meal. If it's been refrigerated for a period of time and the temp is where it needs to be, and then you can be safe with that 30-minute drive. There are those very inexpensive "cold" bags you can get that will hold cold food. If it's a short drive, those insulated bags are great to have in general. If there's a long drive you want to bring an ice chest or something you can put food in to take back with you. Put stuff back in the fridge as quickly as you can. We often divide the leftovers up when we start cleaning up the buffet. That helps, too, because it spreads it out and cools it down faster. Any other parting tips? The general rule for leftovers is three to four days then freeze. USDA Foodkeeper is an app on Android and iOS I would recommend. USDA has a twitter feed for food safety tips. Foodsafety.gov is a good site. The USDA meat and poultry hotline is live Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 888-674-6854. Contact Ms. Knowles at 736-2169 or wendi.knowles.1@us.af.mil.