Thanksgiving tips: Hold the bacteria

Enjoy your holiday!!!

WASHINGTON (AP) -- When Thanksgiving arrives next week, people should be groaning from full stomachs, not food poisoning.

More than 200,000 Americans get sick each day from what they eat, and turkey dinner with all the trimmings complicates it all. The government is offering some tips to keep holiday cooking from becoming an intestinal curse.

At the top of the list is washing your hands often, followed by keeping raw food separate from cooked food, using a food thermometer and storing leftovers in small portions in the fridge.

"It's a little bit more dangerous, obviously, when you have large gatherings and food laid out like this," said Richard Raymond, the nation's top food safety official. "We tend to feast and nibble and snack all afternoon."

During a food-safety demonstration at a food bank, the Agriculture Department's undersecretary for food safety walked along a table laden with raw and cooked turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie.

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