Croydon Council urges food safety this Christmas

Today (Monday December 22nd) is National Defrost Your Turkey Day as people throughout the country start their preparations for Christmas. To mark the day and ensure everyone stays safe and well throughout the festive season, Croydon Council's food safety team is urging residents to take the proper precautions when getting their Christmas turkey ready.

The council's team is providing support to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to help raise awareness of the right way to prepare your Christmas meal and avoid illness, such as food poisoning.

A typical large turkey can need up to two days to fully defrost and be safe for cooking, the team says, meaning that today is the perfect day to pull it out of the freezer to ensure it is fully thawed and safe for cooking.

According to the FSA, only one in four people defrost their turkey correctly by doing so in the fridge. The agency has voiced its concerns that many people are unaware of their risk in terms of food poisoning, and preparing your turkey correctly is one of the easiest ways to avoid this.

Thawing your turkey incorrectly can allow bacteria like campylobacter to spread, placing the whole family at risk. Between late December 2013 and the start of January this year, over 3,000 cases of this type of food poisoning were confirmed in England and Wales.

This year, the council is hoping that reminding people to fully defrost their turkey in the fridge and ensure it is cooked all the way through will help to reduce the instances of food poisoning seen over the festive period.

Councillor Mark Watson, cabinet member for safety and justice, said: "Nobody wants a bout of food poisoning at any time – and they certainly don’t want it over the Christmas and New Year period.

"That’s why it’s important that anybody who has a frozen turkey follows the FSA advice and defrosts the bird in their fridge in plenty of time for Christmas Day." 

Published 22nd December, 2014

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