Store holiday leftovers properly for better flavor and food safety

Leftovers are a great way to stretch your food budget, but proper handling of them is important to make sure they maintain their taste and remain bacteria-free, says the Institute of Food Technologists.

In a news release, the institute suggests three keys for handling leftovers safely: proper refrigeration, containers and heating.

Leftovers need to be refrigerated within two hours of cooking (one hour on hot summer days or in warm climates). Modern refrigerators are built to cool hot dishes, and while it is both safe and energy efficient to cool food a bit before you refrigerate it, you don't have to completely cool it. Leftovers need to be just warm to touch, or around 90 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit before placing them in a refrigerator that is maintained at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower.

The best containers are thin-walled metal, glass or plastic and no more than 2 inches deep, but bags, foil and plastic wrap also work.

How long are leftovers safe in the refrigerator? It varies:

• Cooked meat can be stored three to four days in the fridge, while uncooked ground meats, poultry and seafood will last only a day or two.
• Raw roasts, steaks and chops (beef, veal, lamp or pork) can be refrigerated for three to five days.
• Casseroles, veggies and similar side dishes, as well as pie, will usually last three to five days.

If you have more food than you can eat within these time frames, Shelke recommends freezing it. Uncooked meats can last eight to 12 months in the freezer, while frozen cooked meats will begin to lose their flavor after three months. Freezer temperature should be at zero F (-18 Celsius).

On the front end, how do you food has been heated to a safe temperature? The best way is to use a thermometer. Most foods, especially meats, should be heated to 165 degrees F in the center. The institute also recommends that you bring sauces, soups and gravies to a boil before serving.

It also recommends that you never reheat leftovers in crock pots, slow cookers or chafing dishes, and only reheat foods to a rare center if they were initially cooked properly.

Raw milk suspected as cause of bacterial infections among four children in Hardin County and one in Oldham County

Five children in the Louisville region were recently hospitalized with E. coli bacterial infections, and all had consumed unpasteurized milk, state health agencies found. Investigators have not yet proven that raw milk caused the infections, but "found raw milk was the only common factor among the sick children," Forrest Berkshire reports for The Kentucky Standard in Bardstown and The News-Enterprise of Elizabethtown.

Four of the children are from Hardin County, and one is from Oldham. All went to a hospital to be treated for complications of E. coli, which attacked their red blood cells and affected their kidneys. The Lincoln Trail District Health Department said tests of milk from the suspected dairy and distributors were negative for E. coli, a bacterium common to the intestinal tracts of mammals.

"Pasteurization is the process of heating a liquid such as milk to a high enough temperature to destroy disease-causing microorganisms," Berkshire explains. "It also increases the shelf life of milk by destroying spoilage microorganisms and enzymes."

The state Department for Public Health said, "DPH is stressing the dangers of unpasteurized milk after learning all the affected children had consumed it and because it is a known source of E. coli bacteria, as well as numerous other pathogens that can lead to illness."

Selling raw milk is illegal in Kentucky, but is available through a "herd share," which allows members to buy an interest in a cow that allows them to take the milk home. "Northern Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican, introduced two bills earlier this year he characterized as 'milk freedom legislation' and would strip the U.S. Food and Drug Administration of its authority to police raw milk sales," Berkshire writes. Supporters of raw milk say it helps people resist disease and promotes better growth, stronger teeth and better behavior.

However, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study over a decade that found "the risk of outbreaks caused by raw milk is at least 150 times greater than the risk of outbreaks caused by pasteurized milk," Berkshire reports.

Kentucky law requires milk must be pasteurized, and officials encourage buyers to check labels to make sure it is, and throw it out if pasteurization cannot be confirmed. "Even negative tests do not guarantee that raw milk is safe to drink," the CDC says on its "Raw Milk Questions and Answers" webpage. "People have become very sick from drinking raw milk that came from farms that regularly tested their milk for bacteria and whose owners were sure that their milk was safe." (Read more)