Thanksgiving is a great time to open your home to new neighbors. However you won’t want to welcome Norovirus, hepatitis A, E. coli and salmonella, which among the latest and most serious of the bacteria and viruses found in food that can cause serious health problems.

These bacteria and viruses are different from others because you only need to eat a small number of these to get sick, not thousands, which is typical for many others that cause us to get sick from contaminated food. Also, these bacteria and viruses prefer ready-to eat foods which are more common on today’s Thanksgiving table.

The symptoms of illness caused by contaminated food are very similar to the flu. So fever, vomiting and diarrhea are typical outcomes of eating foods contaminated by bacteria or viruses. Fortunately avoiding the bacteria and viruses that can cause illness is easily accomplished.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides specific information on four simple steps to food safety: clean, separate, cook and chill.

Clean: wash your hands properly to avoid contamination of food. Yes, there is a right way and a wrong way to wash hands in order to stop the spread of bacteria and viruses. The right way to wash hands is rubbing them for 20 seconds with soap and running water. The wrong way is to use only a dab of soap and briefly pass hands under the water.

Separate: after hand washing, keep raw meat, poultry, seafood and eggs separate at all times from ready-to-eat foods. Raw foods can still spread around the bacteria and viruses that can change a happy and healthy Thanksgiving into an unhappy one. Start by separating foods at the grocery store, then at home in the refrigerator and especially when preparing foods.

Cook: use a thermometer to take the temperature of a turkey to make sure the recommended safe internal temperature of the bird is reached. If the thermometer reading reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit, this safe internal temperature can prevent your family from needing to take the temperature of each family member after getting a food-borne illness.

Chill: the right way to store recently cooked food is find a spot in the fridge with room for cool air to circulate around the food, as this allows food to cool safely.

Need more information? Call your local Extension office or check out www.foodsafety.com.