The USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline number is 888-MPHOTLINE (888-674-6854) You can also go online to Ask.usda.gov 

How do you safely handle those turkey, ham and beef leftovers?

Participants: Gary Crawford and Meredith Carothers, with the USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline

Transcript

Well, it's the day after Turkey Day and hopefully things went well for the big meal and hopefully we followed some food safety recommendations during and after the meal such as not leaving that turkey or other perishable foods out at room temperature for longer than two hours.

That two-hour time frame is going to be really key in preventing bacteria from getting to a dangerous level.

Meredith Carruthers with the Ag Department's Meat and Poultry Hotline says after two hours any bacteria on the meat from the air, from people's hands, etc. could start to multiply making leftovers a possible risk for food poisoning.

She says hopefully after the meal or even before we sliced that turkey, got it into the refrigerator within that two-hour time frame.

So now we have turkey leftovers and Carruthers says we need to eat or freeze those within four days.

It's not that bacteria is the problem here, but leftovers have a higher chance of starting to spoil after that time frame and we really don't want anybody to eat spoiled food.

So after four days freeze those turkey leftovers and pull them out when you want.

A little bit of a Thanksgiving fix a few months later.

Yeah, Gary Crawford reporting for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.