As the (warm) Texas fall breeze continues to blow leaves off of the trees, families all over our great nation are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving. Family gatherings, grateful hearts, tables overflowing with abundance, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, a humorously large newspaper overstuffed with Black Friday ads, “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” TV special, football game on in the background while everyone battles (or succumbs) to tryptophan in the turkey that just makes afternoon naps inevitable… the quintessential Thanksgiving traditions list could just go on and on!

When it comes to the meal itself, everyone seems to have an opinion about the “right” side dishes for a proper Thanksgiving feast. Cornbread dressing or bread stuffing? Whole cranberries or the kind that comes in a can? Mashed or scalloped potatoes? The one thing we can all seem to agree on is the bird!

Before the family arrives, the matriarch or patriarch of the gathering must see to that all-important task of preparing the turkey. Decisions must be made to brine, inject, dry rub, or marinate. Then depending on where your family finds its roots, you may choose to roast, fry, BBQ, or smoke. So many decisions to be made!

The good news is that there is one less decision to make this year. Do not–I repeat–do not rinse the turkey. For ages, people have rinsed poultry before seasoning and cooking in the hopes that by doing so they might reduce the chances of food-borne illness. The truth is, this was never an effective method since the only way to kill campylobacter, salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens found in raw poultry is to cook it to a safe internal temperature. For chicken and turkey, that temperature is 165 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The reason the CDC and other authorities are trying to get the message out so strongly is that research has now shown that by rinsing poultry, you actually increase your chances of getting a food-borne illness! You see, when you rinse raw meat in your sink, not only are you contaminating the sink itself, but small particles and germs are often splashed onto sponges, faucets, and countertops in the process. A far better approach is to pat the poultry dry with a paper towel (if desired to remove any slimy residue), put the poultry immediately onto the cooking tray, wash hands and utensils with soapy water, and sanitize countertops (allowing for adequate dwell time, which can often be found on the cleaning product packaging).

Don’t let an out-of-date practice put a pause on your holiday celebrations. And similarly, when it comes to your workplace, you want the most up-to-date cleaning methods in place to ensure that your office, school, medical facility, church, business, or industrial building is not impacted by a careless cleaning mistake. When you contract Sonlight Cleaning Services for your daily janitorial needs, you can trust that we will keep up to date on the most effective cleaning and sanitation methods (so you don’t have to). 

Happy Thanksgiving from your friends at Sonlight!