People are being advised not to wash their turkey this Christmas - with 40% of people planning to do so.
One in four people will be cooking their first Christmas dinner this year, according to new research from Safefood.
It’s estimated that 1 million turkeys are cooked in Ireland each Christmas while 22% are nervous about the task ahead
In terms of checking if the Turkey is cooked, 51% will check the ‘colour of juices’, with 38% basing readiness on the cooking time
58% of people leave the turkey out of the refrigerator, sometimes overnight, mistakenly thinking this is the safest way to store the food.
85% of us expect to eat leftover turkey, however, 16% plan to re-use their leftover turkey 4 days or more after Christmas day, which is not advisable.
Dr. Linda Gordon, Chief Specialist in Food Science at Safefood says “Christmas dinner is a classic that we all love, but there are still misconceptions out there about how to prepare and cook it safely."
“If you have Christmas leftovers, these should be covered and placed in the fridge within two hours of cooking and used within three days."
