Food Safety Tips for Staying Healthy During the Winter Holidays

The winter holidays and Christmas are a time for celebration and feasting. But all that over-indulgence can take its toll, not only on physical health, but emotional health and well. Here are some holiday food safety tips for a healthy holiday.

Some foods are not only unhealthy, they can also be unsafe. Beware of delicacies containing uncooked improperly cooked fish, shellfish and dairy products. Egg nog, raw oysters, pickled herring and creamed herring are four big offenders in the food safety arena. Both contain uncooked animal products.

Beware of exotic foods like liver pate or pate de fois gras, caviar, truffles and specialty cold cuts and cheeses. Check expiration dates. Never buy day old or reduced specialty foods. My Dutch grandfather, seeing what he thought was a good bargain on some reduced price squid at the butcher, made himself horribly sick with food poisoning.

Mussels and shellfish are very difficult to get really fresh. Shellfish contaminates easily and causes many food allergies. Any creature with a shell is more prone to passing on salmonella. My husband worked in the kitchen of a private club. The seafood chef cut himself on the shell as he was opening raw oysters. The juice from the oyster seeped into the cut and his arm swelled to about triple it normal size. It took quite some time for him to recover from his illness. Beware of oysters, scallops, clams, shrimp, prawns, lobster, crab, crayfish, turtles, mussels and whelks. Frogs, while not a shellfish, can also carry salmonella. It may be best to fore-go the frog legs. Seafood and shellfish are one of the leading culprits in food poisoning.

Beware of holiday packaged foods also. Mail order holiday food catalogs can pose a real problem. Nuts, chocolates, fruit baskets, fruit cake and holiday cookies have often been packaged for some time. Holiday packaged foods often aren't too fresh. Some specialty packaged holiday foods contain summer sausage, pepperoni, canned hams and specialty cheeses. The reason that the company is able to sell them unrefrigerated is that these foods are loaded with nitrates, preservatives and fats.These meats and cheeses are often not kept refrigerated. Any meat and dairy product should be kept refrigerated to prevent spoilage.

My last food allergy or health risk advisory is regarding fruit cakes, Buche de Noel (or Yule Log) Cherries Jubilee, Bananas Foster, and Mousse au Chocolate. The issue with these desserts is that most are prepared with alcohol: whiskey, rum, brandy, Schnapps or even vodka. Even if they are made with rum or whiskey flavorings they may upset the stomach and cause health problems. Just be careful when you eat them and warn children ahead of time. My children felt sick after eating whiskey-laden Chocolate Mousse. Alcoholic desserts are often an acquired taste.

Have a happy, healthy, safe holiday season.