Food Safety Tips for the Holiday Season

As Nova Scotians enjoy time with their families and friends during the holiday season, they are being reminded to keep food safety in mind when preparing holiday meals.

Food safety experts with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries are reminding Nova Scotians to use good food safety practices when preparing, transporting and re-heating food for parties and potlucks.

The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries has several fact sheets on its website that provide information on food safety.

They include tips on:

• preparing and serving holiday buffets;
• travelling with food -- keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold;
• how to prepare and store special holiday foods, such as egg nog and apple cider;
• ordering and serving take-out foods, such as meat trays;
• saving and re-serving leftovers;
• how to buy, thaw and cook a turkey and store leftovers.

For more information about food safety and food handling tips, see the department website at www.gov.ns.ca/nsaf/foodsafety/ or call 902-424-1173.