Release No. 0269.95

                                     Bessie Berry  (202) 720-5604
                                     Jerry Redding (202) 720-6959

SPRING HOLIDAY FOODS NEED SPECIAL HANDLING

     WASHINGTON, March 27, 1995--With Passover and Easter occurring the same
weekend this April, many people will be cooking or buying holiday foods.
Whether it's brisket and chopped liver or ham, lamb and Easter eggs, holiday
foods need special handling.

     USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline receives thousands of calls about
cooking and handling foods for spring holidays. One caller said, "I plan to
have my Passover dinner catered this year, but the caterer wants me to pick up
the food five days before the Seder."

     The caller's concerns: "Will the food be safe to eat if I keep it in the
refrigerator that long? If I freeze the meal, will it taste the same? How
should I reheat the meal?"

     Bessie Berry, acting director of the USDA Hotline, says, "Holiday meals
are a special concern. Of course, you want safe food for your family all year
round, but because guests are usually present at holiday gatherings, you
really don't want a festive occasion to end with foodborne illness.

     "Whether you're cooking the holiday meal or it's from a food service
establishment, here are tips from the Hotline for enjoying safe Easter and
Passover foods."

SAFE FOOD PREPARATION AT HOME
     -- Store uncooked lamb, beef and pork in the refrigerator 3 to 5 days;
uncooked poultry, fish and liver 1 or 2 days; cook-before-eating ham 5 to 7
days.
     -- Roast meat and poultry in an oven set no lower than 325ø F. Overnight
cooking at low temperatures is not safe except in slow cookers.
     -- To cook brisket, poultry or other meat in a slow cooker, cut into
pieces of like size to ensure thorough cooking.
     -- Roast lamb, brisket and cook-before-eating ham to 160ø F. Reheat
fully cooked ham to 140ø F. Roast whole poultry to 180ø F; turkey breasts and
turkey roasts to 170ø F.
     -- Eat food hot from the oven or keep safe as for cooked foods below.

COOKED FOODS PURCHASED HOT
     -- Be sure the food is HOT -- not lukewarm -- when you purchase it, and
eat it immediately.
     -- To hold hot food up to two hours for a delayed dinner, set the oven
temperature high enough to keep food at 140ø F or above. (Use a meat
thermometer to check.)
     -- Eating hot food held longer than two hours is not a good idea. To
store it safely, carve meats and whole poultry. Place foods in shallow
containers; cover and refrigerate immediately. Reheat later.

HANDLING COLD FOODS
     -- Cold foods picked up, delivered or taken to a holiday gathering must
be refrigerated at 40ø F within two hours.
     -- If traveling farther away than two hours, pack cold foods in an
insulated cooler with sufficient ice or ice packs to keep the food at 40ø F.

REHEATING
     -- Reheat all foods thoroughly to 165ø F, or until hot and steaming.
     -- Bring gravy or sauce to a rolling boil.
     -- Place carved meat or poultry in a casserole. If desired, sprinkle
with broth to keep it moist. Cover the dish and reheat in an oven set no lower
than 325ø F or a microwave oven.

FOODS IN THE DANGER ZONE
     -- Foods out of the refrigerator or oven are in a dangerous temperature
zone between 40ø and 140ø F. They should not be out for more than two hours.
     -- Arrange and serve cold foods on several small platters rather than
one large platter. Replace empty platters rather than adding fresh food to a
dish that already had food on it.
     -- At holiday buffets, keep cold foods cold by nesting dishes in bowls
of ice. Keep hot foods hot in chafing dishes, crock pots and warming trays.
Replenish foods frequently in small batches.
     -- For outdoor Easter egg hunts, use only hard-cooked eggs with
uncracked shells. Hide them in places protected from dirt, pets and other
sources of bacteria. The total time for hiding and hunting eggs should not
exceed two hours. Re-refrigerate uncracked "found" eggs and use within a week.
Eggs "found" with the shells cracked should be thrown away.

LEFTOVER FOODS
     -- Leftover foods which have not been at room temperature more than two
hours should be safe to keep.
     -- Divide foods into small, shallow containers and refrigerate
immediately. Use cooked foods within three to four days; gravy and meat broth,
one or two days.
     -- Leftovers stored in the freezer should maintain their quality up to
four months. Foods frozen longer remain safe but may be drier and may lose
some flavor.

     For more information about the safe cooking and handling of holiday
foods, call USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline, now in its 10th year of toll-free
service, at 1-800-535-4555. Washington, D.C. area residents call (202) 720-
3333. Home economists are available Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. Eastern time. Callers with touch-tone phones can listen to their choices
of recorded food safety messages 24 hours a day.

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