To Stuff or Not to Stuff

Tracey Cousineau

11/20/2007

With Thanksgiving just a few days away, a controversial question is whether too stuff or not to stuff whole poultry, as raw poultry can contain disease causing bacteria such as Campylobacter and Salmonella. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 76 million cases of food-borne disease occur each year in the U.S. Campylobacter and Salmonella cause 80 percent of the illnesses and 75 percent of the deaths associated with meat and poultry products.

Preventing food poisoning starts when you buy food at the supermarket. Keep food safety in mind as you store, prepare, cook, and serve food at home. Food poisoning prevention can be simplified into three rules: keep food clean, cook food adequately, and keep hot food hot and cold food cold.

If you do chose to stuff your turkey, use a cooking method that allows the stuffing to cook along with the turkey. Do not stuff turkeys when cooking on an outdoor grill or water smoker, or when using fast cook methods where the turkey gets done before the stuffing. The "pop-up" thermometer that comes with many turkeys is one way to judge the bird's doneness, but it won’t tell you the temperature of the stuffing. You should use a conventional meat thermometer to make sure the stuffing reaches 165 degrees F to kill harmful bacteria. If you cannot allow for extra cooking time, the stuffing should be cooked in a pan by itself. For more information about food safety, contact the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service at 1-888-674-6854 or visit www.fsis.usda.gov/.

Food poisoning is a great master of disguise. You could be up half the night with a headache and nausea and think that you've caught the flu or a virus that's going around. However, a lot of people who think they have the flu are really suffering from a mild case of food poisoning. Young children, the elderly, and people with severe medical conditions are at highest risk of dehydration due to food poisoning. For these people, careful observance of all food handling guidelines is essential because food borne illnesses may be life-threatening. Contact your physician if there is diarrhea lasting longer than 24 hours, vomiting lasting longer than 12 hours, blood in the stool, fever, vomiting and diarrhea that are so intense that severe muscle cramping occurs, and an inability to keep down any liquids at all for 12 hours.

If you have a topic that you would like me to write about in an upcoming Senior Moments Article, please call me at 794-6700, write to me at Health Access Network, PO Box 99, Lincoln Maine or email me at tcousineau@HANFQHC.org. Previous Senior Moments articles are also available at www.hanfqhc.org under the News Tab.