Facts about Nutrition Facts

As a meat head, and now even more, as a mom, I am always turning food packages over to look at the Nutrition Facts and the Ingredient Statements. They have to be on the food package or provided to the consumer is some easy-to-access way. There are a few exemptions for small processors and very small food packages, but for the most part, they have to be there.

I am always surprised when I visit with people about their food, and we turn the package over to look at the Nutrition Facts and they say things like, “Wow, I didn’t realize that had so much ______!” or “I never thought to look at the _____ level in this.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandates how Nutrition Facts must be presented on food labels. They even have rules about the font type and lettering size. That is why the Nutrition Facts on all US foods look the same. (On a side note: I love to look at food products in other countries to see how their Nutrition Facts are presented.)

This is a Nutrition Fact label from some beef jerky. I downloaded it off the internet.


Under the large words “Nutrition Facts”, the label will tell you what is considered a serving size. The serving size should provide it in a weight increment (grams, ounces), and if applicable, a number or pieces. This is where I always get myself into trouble. My idea of a serving and the food manufacturer’s idea of a serving may not always be the same (especially Girl Scout cookies). Nevertheless, the serving size on the label is what the Nutrition Facts are based on. If you eat more than that (like, a whole box of Thin Mints), you’re getting more calories, fat, sodium, or whatever, than what’s in one serving.

In addition to serving size, is Servings Per Container. This is really helpful when the serving size can’t be counted (like number of cookies). If there are three servings per container, then you know you can eat about 1/3 of the package and be getting about one serving. If you decide to eat the whole package (or box of cookies), then you just have to multiply the number of servings you ate by the facts on the label.

Calories are the next piece of information. Most people know what those are and where to find them on the label. Just remember, that number is calories per serving.

Across from Calories is Calories from Fat. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggests that, to maintain a healthy weight, we should eat a diet with a balanced calorie load. They suggest that about 30% of our calories come from fat sources. Fat provides more calories (9 per gram) than protein and carbohydrates (4 calories per gram), so it’s easy to get carried away with fat in our diets.

The next few lines provide information about specific nutrients that consumers may want to try to maximize or minimize. On the left the nutrient is listed (Total Fat, Cholesterol) with the actual amount of that nutrient provided in grams or milligrams. In the column on the left, there is a list of percentages. For each ingredient, the FDA has calculated a recommended daily value, which is the amount of that ingredient that people should consume each day. Those percentages tell you how much of that daily value one serving of this food will provide. For some nutrients (total fat, cholesterol, sodium), you will be trying to stay below the daily value and for others (Vitamins, Iron, Calcium), you will be trying to get up to it. Now, to make things even more complicated, people don’t eat 2,000 calories a day. If you are dieting and you eat less than 2,000 calories, your percentages will go up, and if you eat more than 2,000 calories, your percentages will go down.

Total fat is usually a nutrient that you are trying to limit. Under Total Fat, the information is further broken down into Saturated Fat and Trans Fat. Saturated Fats are the more solid fats like those found in coconut oil, beef tallow, and butter. The Dietary Guidelines suggest that you limit saturated fat to 10% of your calorie intake or about 20 grams per day.

Trans fats are found naturally in some foods and are produced in some foods during cooking and processing. They are actually unsaturated fats that have been altered so that they act like saturated fats in foods and in your body (that may be a topic for a whole other blog post). There is no dietary requirement for trans fats, so no percentage will be provided, but the Dietary Guidelines suggest that you limit your trans fat intake, so the amount found in foods provided on the nutrition label.

Cholesterol is going to be found in most foods that come from animal sources. The recommended daily value for cholesterol is 300 mg.

Sodium is most commonly associated with salt. Although sodium is a requirement for basic metabolism, Americans generally consume more sodium than what is recommended (2,300 mg). Sodium can be ‘hidden’ in lots of foods. Most people associate high sodium levels with salty snacks and processed meats (bologna, hot dogs, ham), but foods like breads, cheese, and especially ready-to-eat meals like Asian noodle dishes or instant soups. Several foods contain sodium and sodium content is related to total calorie intake. It’s very hard to control sodium intake, but I try to keep an eye on it.

Carbohydrates are made up of sugars, starch and fiber, and contribute to calories at a rate of about 4 calories per gram. Sugars are just simple carbohydrates, which are just rings of carbons. The sugars are what your body breaks down for energy (and to make fat). Complex carbohydrates are those same rings of carbons all linked together. In starches, the sugars are linked together in a manner that our body can digest and break down into sugars that we can use for energy. In fiber, the sugars are linked together in a manner that our body cannot break down. So, we don’t absorb the sugars and the fiber just moves on through our digestive system.

 

So, total carbohydrates should be all sugars, starch and fiber. Sugars and fiber are shown on separate lines, and the balance should be starch. In meat products, you won’t find much sugar or fiber, but starches are commonly added to sausages and in breadings.

Last on this list is protein. Protein needs are highly dependent on age, activity level, genetics, musculature, lots of things. So, percent daily value is not shown. Meat products will contain high levels of protein. Remember that protein contributes to calories, too (4 calories per gram).

Most nutrition fact labels will also give you a percent daily value for one serving of the vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron. Meat products wouldn’t be expected to have very high levels of vitamins A or C or calcium, but they should supply some iron. And, the iron provided is heme iron, which means it’s readily available for use by our bodies.

That pretty much sums up the Nutrition Facts found on the back of the package. I used a Nutrition Facts label from some Steak Fingers to try to sum all the information into one

Ingredient Statements. You should also find the ingredient statement on the back of your food package. It will list out all the ingredients found in the food from the most to the least.

This is a package of summer sausage found in my aunt’s fridge. According to the ingredient statement, pork is the most prevalent ingredient (found in the highest percentage), followed by beef and salt. Another thing to remember is that if an ingredient is NOT in the ingredient list, it is NOT in the food. No matter what you read on the internet or see on TV, if it’s in the food, it has to be in the ingredient list.


I hope this is helpful. I really enjoy it when I see people turn their food packages over to look at the Nutrition Facts and learn something new. It’s important to know as much as you can about the food you are feeding your family, but be sure that you know the facts. 

I’ve included a few extra links if you’d like some more in-depth information. This is a PowerPoint file from FDA about nutrition labels and here is an FDA video – Food Labels and You. There is also lots of information about the dietary guidelines and where our nutrients come from in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

BEEF! What an industry

 

Last weekend, the Mom, Dad and Daughter at the Meat Counter spent time enjoying the Fort Worth Stock Show. We drove 6 hours, stayed two nights in a hotel and paid money for parking and admission to look at cattle, sheep, a few goats, and a trade show. It was great! We loved it! I would spend every weekend the same way! I know; however, that most people don’t enjoy spending time evaluating cattle on their days off like our family, and that’s ok.

 

This week, I am very excited about my trip with students to the National Block and Bridle Convention. It’s being held in Murfreesboro, TN, and we’ve spent a whole day at the Cattlemen’s Industry Convention. I have been so excited. People from all aspects of the beef industry, 6,000 to be exact, gather together to teach, learn and celebrate the beef industry at this annual convention. We are a passionate bunch. If you are interested in the happenings, you can follow along by searching the hashtag #CIC12.

 

The Dad at the Meat Counter and I have a few cows (50 or so), and the Daughter at the Meat Counter is starting her herd (she actually had cows before she was born). We are part of the Beef Industry and beef is a big part of our life.

 

So, I decided that I needed to dedicate a post to BEEF! and the Beef Industry. I recently spoke at the Madison County Cattlemen’s Association meeting and shared with them some facts about the industry, and I thought I’d share some with you as well. Most of these facts came from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association website.

• In 2011, there were 92.6 million cattle in the US
• Cattlemen spent $44 billion on them.
• Cattle farms (or ranches to some people) make up the single largest segment of American agriculture. (31% of farms in the US are dedicated to cattle)
• In 2007, 97% of cattle farms were family farms
• 90% of American cow herds have fewer than 100 cows. The average cow herd size in the US is 44.
• The average cattleman (beef farmer) is 58 years old.
• The US beef industry harvested 33.5 million head of cattle in 2011 to produce 26 billion pounds of beef.
• Texas has the most cattle, followed by Kansas, Nebraska, California, and Oklahoma.
• In the US, all beef cattle spend most of their lifetimes grazing grass on pastures.
• Cattle designated for meat production are switched to high-energy, grain-based diets for about 100 days before harvest to give their beef the juiciness and flavor that we Americans enjoy.

Here are a few facts about beef as a meat product

•  8 out of 10 people consume fresh beef (bought out of the retail case in a grocery store) regularly, eating beef prepared at home an average of 1.7 times each week.
• At home, ground beef is the most popular item and steaks are 2nd
• Families, which make up 1/3 of households, purchase and prepare greater than 50% of fresh beef served at home in the US.
• Beef is the #1 protein served in food service, which is made up of restaurants, hotels, schools, etc..
• Ground beef makes up the greatest volume of beef sold in food service (63% of pounds)
• But, steaks make up the greatest amount of total dollars spent in food service (42% of dollars)
• How have things changed for our industry in the past few years? (This is where the numbers get really cool!)
• Since the early 1980s, the number of cows producing calves and, eventually, beef has been decreasing. (You would think that fewer cows would mean less beef. Right?)
• While cow numbers decreased, beef production increased from 1980 to today, because the pounds of beef produced per cow has increased dramatically in the past 30 years.

 Here’s the cool part! This data is from research published by Dr. Jude Capper from Washington State University.

 

• US cattlemen produce 20% of the world’s beef, but only have 7% of the world’s cattle.
• American beef cows in 2007 produce 131% of the pounds of beef that American beef cows were producing in 1977.
• Even though cattle are producing so much more beef, they are doing it using 81% of the feed, 86% of the water, and 66% of the land used in 1977. (WOW!)
• And, to produce beef in 2007, cattle produced only 80% of the manure and methane produced in 1977 as well as 89% of the nitrous oxide.
• So, a pound of beef produced in the US in 2007 has 82% of the carbon footprint of a pound of beef produced in 1977.

 

 

To sum it all up, the US beef industry is producing more beef with fewer animals, using fewer natural resources, and lessening the impact on the environment. All of these accomplishments are due to the innovative people in the US beef industry!

 

 

 

 

McNugget Misclaims

In the days since my last post about McDonald’s, I have had a few questions about chicken nuggets. Apparently there is a photo and a link to a blog post from a holistic Dr. Akilah El blog about the Mechanically Separated Chicken that is allegedly added to chicken McNuggets. The claims in the post are so FALSE that I hate to even share the blog, but here you go. False claims. Linking it to the word ‘false’ made me feel a little better about linking to it at all.

First, this is a blog post. Anybody can start a blog and write stuff about anything and spread around the internet. (I guess the same could be said about me, but…)

They claim that MSC is added to chicken nuggets. Mechanically separated chicken is NOT an ingredient in the McDonald’s chicken McNugget. They contain white boneless chicken. If MSC was in chicken McNuggets, McDonald’s is required BY LAW to put it in the ingredient statement.

I looked at the ingredients for the nuggets at Wendy’s and Burger King, and didn’t find MSC in any of them, either.

Here is a link to a site from the National Chicken Council about what’s really in that chicken nugget.

So, what is MSC in, really? Mechanically separated chicken in often used in really inexpensive sausage products like non-species specific hotdogs and bologna. Sometimes you see it in other processed meats, but it will ALWAYS be on the ingredient statement.

How is it made? After workers remove all the chicken off the bones that they can, there is still protein (little meat scraps) left on the bones that human workers could not physically remove. So the bones are subjected to high pressure and water to remove the meat scraps. It is immediately frozen to preserve it, usually using some sort of anhydrous ammonia refrigeration.

So, ammonia is added to the meat? Nope, it’s just used to chill the air to freeze it. 

Why is MSC pink, then? Mechanically separated chicken is pink because the processors add nitrite to it. Remember my post about nitrite making meat pink? They add nitrite to help prevent it from oxidizing.

Is ammonia ever added to meat? You may have seen or heard something about ammonia being added to meat. Chef and food activist, Jaime Oliver, has posted some videos about it. He is misleading the public about a completely different product derived from beef. Our friends at Meat Myth Crushers have addressed this myth in this video with Dr. Gary Acuff from Texas A&M and I have written a blog post about it.

Is MSC safe to feed my family? Yes, it is safe. It’s a very inexpensive source of protein for processed meats. I am NOT afraid to feed it to my daughter. The products it is found in are usually very inexpensive and… well, they taste that way. We prefer BEEF hot dogs and bologna.

Back to the McNuggets. I am glad that people have asked me about the McNuggets. They are a good, inexpensive source of protein, and Vallie will actually eat them. Kids love to dip them in sauce. Their meat source is boneless white meat chicken. The next time you hear about the pink slime or goo or whatever they call it, you’ll know the truth and you can share.

12-9-14 ~ McDonald's has a great video about how their McNuggets are made. Go check it out!

Please, keep the questions and comments coming.

Happy about Happy Meals

Lately, McDonald’s has started a new ad campaign featuring their producers, nice stories about the farmers that produce their foods, including beef, lettuce, and potato. As a kid who grew up in agriculture, I LOVE these new commercials. They really show the people behind our food. Great job, McDonald’s!

A month or so ago, I posted on facebook that I was going to enjoy an evening meal with my family at our local McDonald’s. I was so surprised to see some of my friends and family’s comments. I got several ‘likes,’ one comment that the McRib was BACK, one “Ick. Don’t do it!” and two comments saying that they’d rather eat raw fish. One person said that they hadn’t been to McDonald’s since their kids were born. Really? What’s so bad about McDonald’s?

A few years ago, a guy in New York made a documentary called “Super-size Me.” In fact, the post previous to the one saying I was headed to McDonald’s was one saying that I was watching this movie. This guy decided to eat nothing but McDonald’s for thirty days and document what happened to his health. Now, my husband called to invite me to McDonald’s before the movie was half-way over, so I didn’t watch all of it. So, I’m not going to criticize it, yet. I haven’t seen it all. But, I think this movie may be part of why so many people have bad feeling for McDonald’s.

When I decided to write a post about McDonald’s, I asked my facebook friends what they thought about their food. Several of their answers included greasy and that they only ate their fries. One said it was an evil necessity and one called it over processed. Some said that they craved it. Some said that they let their kids eat there on road trips. Some had things they loved (McRib) and some had bad experiences.

Let me say first that I don’t think that you should eat at McDonald’s everyday and that you can definitely overeat when you go there. Some of their foods are very high in calories (ok, a lot of their food), and when you eat too many calories, you are going to gain weight.

I also want to let people know that it’s not BAD food. I feel like fast food places, McDonald’s especially, get a bad rap from the media. I’m all about people being well informed. High calorie meals are just high calorie meals. If you ate 3,000+ calories from foods at home, you would still get fat.

So, what’s the deal with McDonald’s?
First, a BigMac is a BigMac is a BigMac. One person pointed out that McDonald’s was consistent. That’s a nice thing about fast food places. You know what your cheeseburger or chicken nuggets or BigMac is going to taste like (good or bad) no matter which McDonald’s you go to. The fries and cheeseburgers are the same in Florida, New York, Arkansas, or California. Once you leave the country, its… well, it’s like a whole other country. The McDonald’s in Germany was NOT like the ones in Arkansas. (It was better.)

Looking for the facts. So, I checked out the official McDonald’s website and looked up the ingredients and the nutrition facts for some of their food. First of all, McDonald’s has a really cool website. You can select any of the food you can purchase at their stores and see the calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, sodium, cholesterol, vitamins and minerals. You can look at the specific ingredients of each component of your food. Say you want to know the calories of your favorite sandwich, hold the mayo? The website will show you. Do you want to know the ingredients in the ketchup? You can find that, too. You can find potential allergens in each ingredient. You can calculate the nutrition facts for an entire meal.

It’s really neat. Certain Meat Counter Moms have been guilty of spending a lot of time on it. ;)

I’m a meat head, so I naturally looked at what I know, burgers and sandwiches. (They contain meat.)

One of my go-to sandwiches is the simple, 1955-model cheeseburger. Maybe its nostalgia-food, but I love it. 300 calories, 15 grams of high-quality protein. Sometimes, I eat two. (Hey, I’ve never claimed to be the Skinny Mom at the Meat Counter.) The beef patty in my little fav is “100% pure USDA inspected beef; no fillers, no extenders. Prepared with grill seasoning (salt, black pepper).” 100% beef. That means it’s nothing but skeletal meat from cattle. The same beef that makes steaks and roasts, and the same beef that you find in the grocery store. No binders or fillers or non-meat ingredients are added. Only salt and pepper.

Some of the other burgers are seasoned with more than just salt and pepper, but ALL their hamburgers are 100% beef. Some are specifically ‘Angus’ beef. (That’s another day’s blog post.) Some are larger than others. The Angus patties are 1/3 pound, then there are the quarter-pounders (that’s ¼ pound), and there are the smallest patties used on the hamburgers and cheeseburgers (I couldn’t tell from the website how big they were).

But is it prepared safely? In McDonald’s, beef patties are cooked on a clam-shell griddle that locks itself closed. There is no way to get the burgers off the grill until they are cooked thoroughly using a specific time/ temperature combination that guarantees they are cooked to a temperature high enough to kill microorganisms, no matter how many people are waiting for them. The griddle just heats the patties in their own juices. No fat or oil is added.

What about the chicken?

Most kids really like the chicken nuggets. Vallie enjoys them, but she probably prefers hamburgers. A few years ago, McDonald’s began using exclusively white meat for their nuggets. That means that they cut up pieces of chicken breast; mix it with water, seasoning, salt and phosphates (the salt and phosphates help the chicken pieces stick to each other and form the nugget shapes), batter and bread it. They are fried in Canola oil.

A four-piece nugget supplies about 190 calories and 9 grams of protein. On their website, you can see the nutrition facts for your favorite dipping sauce, too. Vallie prefers ketchup. I like my nuggets naked.

I know that there is no way to answer all your questions about McDonald’s in one short blog post. I just want you to know that if you take your kids there every now and then, there is no reason to feel bad about what you are feeding them. 

There is a whole page of questions and answers about the meat from McDonald’s. There are also Q & A pages about all their foods.

I challenge you guys to go check out their website and feel free to ask me questions about your favorite foods. If I don’t know the answer, I will pester the people that do.

If you don’t like McDonald’s, plenty of other fast food places have nice websites, complete with nutrition facts. Go check them out.

Wendy’s Burger King In N Out Burger Taco Bell Subway Jack in the Box

Merry Christmas and Travel Safely

This week’s blog post comes from a Meat Counter Mom with a heavy heart. My good friend, Dr. Chris Raines was killed in a car wreck this weekend. Chris and I were friends and roomies in graduate school. Chris sent me my first-ever text message. It was about an apple-cinnamon bacon project we were going to try. Although Chris was younger than me, I looked up to him in the digital world. He was the innovator. He was tweeting before I knew that it wasn’t something that birds did. He started a meat blog long before I ever considered it. And, when I decided to enter the twenty-first century and start a blog and a Twitter, it was Chris that I consulted (via text message). It was his idea to make my blog a ‘Mommy’ blog.

He was silly and goofy and a great guy to be around. He was incredibly smart, but he could talk to anyone. He was really concerned that people were well-informed. Teaching and educating were his passions. My last correspondence (a text) with him was about helping students (his at Penn State and mine at Arkansas) prepare for an academic competition.

 I will miss him so.

This is a pic of Chris, me and our other roommate, Julie (she’s a veterinarian, now).

But, my blogs are not really supposed to be about me and my issues. My blogs are supposed to be about information that other moms need to keep their families safe and healthy. I just wanted to share about Chris and let everyone know what a great guy he was and that without him there would be no Mom at the Meat Counter.

On to the info…

Everyone seems to travel during the holiday season. If you are not headed to a grand parent’s (or multiple grandparent’s houses) for the holiday, you may be headed to the beach or the ski lodge in the next few weeks. Our family has traveled to Denver in January the past few years to stand in the cold and look at cattle.

Everyone is traveling. Money is tight and if you have a freezer full of meat, you hate to travel and have to buy meat at your destination.

But, how do you get it there safely?

First, is it frozen? Frozen meat is the easiest to travel with. If you have some steaks or roasts in the fridge that you want to travel with, freeze them. Freezing for a few days won’t hurt their eating quality. Frozen meat has further to go before it reaches the DANGER ZONE.  

If you are going to travel more than an hour or so, you’ll want to pack your meat in a cooler. Make sure you wash the inside and outside of your cooler before your fill it with meat. You also want to save packing the cooler as one of your last chores before you head out the door. That will minimize the time the meat is in it.

You want to fill the cooler as full as possible, so use as small a cooler as you can. Excess air in the cooler will cause the meat to thaw faster. If you can’t fill your cooler up with meat, put a towel or blanket inside the cooler to insulate the air. You’ll want to put the meat on the bottom and the towel on the top. Air will escape into and out of the cooler through the lid, so you want to insulate it from the top.

For trips shorter than 5 or 6 hours, frozen meat will probably stay frozen in a cooler, especially in cool, winter weather.  If you are going to be traveling for longer periods, you can use those frozen, blue ice packs. Pack them next to the edge of the cooler and on top of the meat. Think about where the warmth will be coming from, the top and the sides.  Don’t put ice on frozen meat, the ice may actually be warmer than the meat, and, because it will melt into water, ice will thaw the meat faster than air would.

Some people may consider dry ice. Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide. You can use it to keep meat frozen, but it can be dangerous if you keep it in the car with you or if it touches your skin. Follow the link and read about the safety of dry ice before you decide to use it.

If your meat is not frozen, you can still travel with it. Here is where I would suggest using ice. It would be best to package any meat you are traveling with in water-tight packages, like zip-lock bags. If the meat is already in a vacuum package, it will be fine. Put the meat on the bottom of the cooler and the ice on top of it. Meat freezes at a lower temperature than water (28° F), so the ice will not freeze the meat. You can use the ice as an indicator of the cooler temperature. As long as the ice is solid (you know, still ice) the meat should be cold enough. If the ice thaws, drain out the water and buy more ice.

If you packed fresh, uncooked meat, the ice could have harmful bacteria on it. Don’t use it for drinks or anything else. Just throw it out.

After you’ve packed your cooler, you may consider putting a blanket over it, especially around the openings. That should help insulate any warm air that may try to seep in it. If it’s cold outside and the car will be warm, put the cooler in the trunk or back so it will stay colder. Also, try to minimize how many times you open it. Every time you open the cooler, all the cold air will escape and will be replaced by warmer air.

I hope everyone enjoys this Holiday Season and has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope you get to enjoy your family and that you eat well. But, please… Travel Safely.

Bring it home safely

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I was doing some grocery shopping, and I saw some things in other shoppers’ carts that really concerned me. No, it wasn’t their dirty, screaming children. There were food safety issues all over the store.

One particular cart contained fresh, uncooked pork chops with a bag of Clementine oranges sitting directly on top of it. I considered (for a second or two) snapping a secret picture with my cell phone, but decided that might create a scene. Then, I considered recreating the incident and taking pictures, but that would have been so wasteful.

The store is responsible for keeping meat products in a clean environment and at safe temperatures, but as soon as you select a package and place it in your cart, it’s all on you.  Only you can control how safely that package is handled from the time you select it until it is served to your family.

To get things started, the folks at www.foodsafety.gov have a blog about keeping food safe while shopping called Start at the Store. It also contains a video. They talk about inspecting cans to make sure they are not dented and fruit to make sure it is not bruised.

A friend of mine sent me this picture. Se was extra careful about
keeping her fresh meat away from the rest of her groceries.

When you are shopping for groceries, you should always wait to buy milk, meat and eggs until last. They are perishable and you want to minimize the time they spend outside of refrigeration. You want to observe the “2 hour rule.” This simply states that refrigerated food should not be stored at room temperature for more than 2 hours. When it’s hot outside (above 90°F), you should have your refrigerated foods home in the fridge in an hour.

Also, when you are selecting that perfect cut, try to handle the packages by touching only the packaging. Don’t poke on the meat with your fingers. Even though they are wrapped in plastic, it is not a perfect barrier, so when you handle the meat, the germs from your hands could still transfer to the meat.

You have every right to examine every package in the case to find that perfect one, but when you find it, put the rest of the packages back where you found them. Don’t leave them stacked up on each other. Those coolers can only keep the meat cold if it is below a certain point within them. Most stores only stack their packages three deep so the coolers can do their job efficiently.

At most grocery stores today, there are plastic bags close to the meat counter for you to place the packages in. They will be just like the ones you’ll see in the produce section. You should use these to keep juices from the meat from dripping onto other foods in your cart.

Remember that sandwich meats and hot dogs are already cooked. They need be refrigerated, but you don’t want to get raw meat juices on them. Don’t put them in the bag with the raw meat.

When you put your raw meat packages in your shopping cart, keep it away from other food items. Do not set it on top of other foods. Do not set other foods on it. Remember those Clementine oranges? They were potentially contaminated. You will cook your meat to kill any bacteria that is on it, but fresh fruits and vegetables may not be cooked before they are eaten.

But, don’t oranges have a thick peel? Even if they have a thick peel, the surface could carry bacteria that could be transferred to your hands when you peel it and then to the interior of the food when you eat it! Just keep it separated!

After you go through the check-out line, make sure that raw meat packages are bagged separately from other foods. I think store employees are being trained in food safety and many of them will bag your raw meat items separately without you even asking.

If you like to use those environmentally-friendly, reusable shopping bags, use a disposable one for your raw meat products. The juices from your meat could drip onto the reusable bag and allow bacteria to grow in it between shopping trips. Then, it would contaminate your food on the next trip to the store.

If you are going to make it home and get your meat products in the fridge in less than two hours, everything should be ok without a cooler or ice pack. If it’s really hot outside (greater than 90°F), you should have it home in one hour and put your meat products in the front of the car in the air-conditioning rather than in the trunk.  If you can’t make it in an hour, you should put your meat, milk, eggs and other perishable items on ice.

Once you get home, get your perishable meats, milk and eggs unloaded and in the fridge.  Double check all your shopping bags for everything that needs to go in the fridge.

Enjoy this crazy Christmas season. I love it! I would also love some comments or questions for topics for my next blog. Thanks!

The Big Turkey Day!

Did you know that according to records, the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people shared beef and (undisclosed) fowl at the first Thanksgiving? No one is sure why the large bird has become so closely associated with our National Day of Thanksgiving. I know that my turkey-farmer neighbors appreciate it.
According to the National Turkey Federation website, 88% of American’s eat turkey on Thanksgiving. It is estimated that American’s consumed 46 million turkeys last Thanksgiving. In fact, Benjamin Franklin wrote to his daughter that he preferred the turkey over the eagle for the Official National Bird. Hmmm… Maybe Virginia Tech is on to something.
There is A LOT of information on the internet about cooking your meal on Thanksgiving Day. Some good websites include www.foodsafety.org, the USDA, www.eatturkey.com, www.butterball.com, the Honeysuckle White Company, and the Food Network. Be careful if you just Google “Turkey”, unless of course you are interested in a trip to Istanbul. You can also search the twitter for #turkey, #turkeytweet, #Thanksgiving, #trkytips, or #turkeychat. I think you could read about Thanksgiving food safety and holiday meal preparation on the internet from now until… Valentine’s Day… really. There is no way I could cover it all in one post, so I’m trying to hit the high points and give you lots of resources if you have more questions.
So, you are planning to cook a huge meal for friends and family this Thursday? Hopefully you’ve already cleaned out your fridge and bought all your ingredients.
You want to make sure that your family is healthy for the long holiday weekend. You don’t want food poisoning during your big shopping trip on Friday. A couple of months ago, I wrote a Food Safety Post and talked about the 4 simple steps for food preparation and storage. Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill. Be sure to keep those in mind all day.

Preparation.

First, wash your hands with soap and warm water before you get started. Make all your helpers wash their hands. (On a side note, if anyone has the sniffles, send them to watch football. Letting them help you cook is an ideal way to spread their germs to everyone else.) Be sure to wash your hands after you’ve handled any raw meat or eggs.
Use a soap and warm water to wash down all the counter tops and cutting boards. Be sure to wash all your utensils with soap and warm water after you’ve used them. If there are lots of helpers in the kitchen, be sure to wash utensils that have been used on raw meat or eggs right away. You don’t want anyone to accidently reuse them on something that’s already been cooked.

The bird.

Thawing. The best way to thaw a turkey is in the fridge, but remember it will take about 24 hours per 4-5 pounds of turkey to thaw in the fridge. That means a 16 to 20 pound bird will take 4 or 5 days. Here is a link to estimated thawing times. If you really need to thaw you turkey in a few hours, you can use cold water. You will still need about 30 minutes per pound and it is suggested that you place the turkey in a plastic bag and change out the water every 30 minutes. When I was a kid, my mom and dad had a microwave that was big enough to thaw a turkey, but I haven’t seen one that large in a long time. Still, if you really want to and it will fit, you can use a microwave to thaw your turkey… chuckle.
Keep all raw meat in the fridge until you are ready to cook it. It should be in something to catch any juices and separated from other foods.

Marinating. Some people like to marinate or inject their turkey. You should let it set for a little while after you marinate it, before you cook it. Let it set in the fridge. You want to keep it cold. I found a video from USDA food safety about brining (marinating) a turkey for Thanksgiving.
You can put your turkey directly into the roasting pan to get it ready to cook, usually on a small rack. Remember, everything in the roasting pan will be roasted, so it will be safe when it comes out of the oven.

Stuffing. I am not a fan of stuffing in general (don’t tell my dad). Most food safety experts suggest that you cook your stuffing separate from your turkey. But, if you really want to stuff the bird, you need to stuff it immediately before you cook it and check that the middle of the stuffing reaches 165°F before you take it out of the oven. The uncooked juices from the Turkey will mix into the stuffing and you want to make sure that everything gets hot enough to kill any bacteria. USDA also offers a whole fact sheet on stuffing.

Roasting. The traditional method for cooking a turkey is roasting it in the oven. The USDA has also provided a fact sheet for safely preparing your turkey called … wait for it… Let’s Talk Turkey. They are so funny at that government agency. Basically, make sure the oven it set above 325°F, allow enough time for cooking based on the size of your turkey and your own oven. The table below is from a turkey roasting page on the www.eatturkey.com website and gives time estimations for cooking a thawed turkey.

Weight	Unstuffed Turkey	Stuffed Turkey
8 to 12 pounds	2 3/4 to 3 hours	3 to 3 1/2 hours
12 to 14 pounds	3 to 3 3/4 hours	3 1/2 to 4 hours
14 to 18 pounds	3 3/4 to 4 1/4 hours	4 to 4 1/4 hours
18 to 20 pounds	4 1/4 to 4 1/2 hours	4 1/4 to 4 3/4 hours
20 to 24 pounds	4 1/2 to 5 hours	4 3/4 to 5 1/4 hours
24 to 30 pounds	5 to 5 1/4 hours	5 1/4 to 6 1/4 hours

You can cook a frozen turkey in the oven, but it will take at least 50% longer.

Most importantly, USE A MEAT THERMOMETER to make sure the thickest part of breast has reached 165°F! I know that most turkeys today come with a pop-up thermometer to let you know when it’s done. Those were developed in the 60’s. Use a thermometer. I know there are lots of questions about thermometers; the Eat Turkey website has also provided a thermometer guideline page.

Frying. I wish I knew how many people deep fry their turkeys now. I’ve tried it (eaten it, not actually fried it), and it was quite tasty (then again, it was made by my cousin Pauline, and everything she makes is tasty). Anyway, lots of people like fried turkey, including William Shatner, of Star Trek fame. I would definitely recommend watching his video about turkey frying safety. The New York Daily News wrote an article about Shatner’s turkey frying video, and included the following tips concerning safety when deep frying a turkey:

1. Avoid spillover: Don’t overfill the pot (with oil).
2. Turn off flame when lowering the turkey into the oil.
3. Fry outside, away from the house.
4. Thaw the turkey before frying.
5. Keep a grease-fire approved fire extinguisher nearby.

Even when you are frying your turkey. USE A MEAT THERMOMETER! Make sure the breast reaches 165°F. Never fry a stuffed turkey. Be safe and you will live long and prosper.

The leftovers. Just like it takes a long time to cook a turkey, it takes a long time to chill turkey leftovers. Cut up the leftover turkey and place it in shallow containers in the fridge. That will allow the turkey to chill faster and keep it out of the Danger Zone. You want to get it in the fridge within 2 hours of your meal.

What about ham? I really think ham is neglected on Thanksgiving. Our family usually has a choice of turkey or ham. The USDA has a nice fact sheet about hams. Most people buy smoked, cooked hams, so essentially all you are doing is reheating it for your meal. Cooked hams should be heated to 140°F, warm enough to get it out of the Danger Zone. The package will say whether or not it’s cooked. Some hams are smoked and uncooked, labeled ‘cook-before-eating’ and some people choose to buy fresh, uncooked hams. For those, you want to heat it to an internal temperature of 145°F and allow it to rest for 3 minutes. Just like turkey, you want to cut up your leftovers and get them in the fridge in shallow containers within 2 hours.


Everything else. In my last post, I talked about keeping foods separate by getting different colored cutting boards for raw meat and ‘ready-to-eat’ food that won’t be cooked (fresh fruit and vegetables). Make sure everyone in the kitchen knows which cutting boards are for what. If you have a large kitchen, it might even be good to prepare raw food in one area and ready-to-eat food in another.

I also worry about gravies on Thanksgiving. It should be treated like a meat product. Make sure it gets hot (165°F) before it’s served and get it in the fridge within two hours of the meal.

Don’t forget, you should throw out all your Thanksgiving leftovers on Sunday night.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Please feel free to comment on my blog or the Mom at the Meat Counter Facebook Page if you have any questions or comments. I will keep an eye on it all weekend.

Remember the Food Safety Hotline will be staffed from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern Time on Thanksgiving Day. Call them toll-free at 1-888-674-6854. Or check out their Ask Karen page or app.