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The holiday table: For many, it is the highlight of the season, packed with roast turkey, savory stuffing, homemade pies and perhaps a cold glass of eggnog. It is also a place where bacteria can linger, turning a holiday gathering into a very different type of party. As holiday menus are planned and grocery lists assembled, Carla Schwan, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension food safety specialist, urges home cooks to remember one key rule. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

Does the stress of preparing for the holidays hit you like a sledgehammer? Are you Googling new recipes the night before the feast to find the perfect sides? Does a relative want Grandma’s cornbread stuffing instead of the Stouffer’s you had planned to prepare? Let’s face it: The holidays may look picture-perfect on social media, but in reality, they may not be so full of harmony and smiles.

According to the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety study, SARS-CoV-2 experimentally introduced onto berries remained infectious on frozen berries for at least a month. Refrigerating berries at 39 degrees Fahrenheit showed a 90% reduction in SARS-CoV-2 infectivity over the course of three days, as did washing berries before freezing.

As home canning season approaches, a University of Georgia food safety expert stressed the need for proper precautions to avoid foodborne illness. A recent death in Washington state was attributed to botulism, a toxin that is a byproduct of the heat-resistant spores of a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum that likely originated from a home-canned food.

Carla Schwan has been hired as an assistant professor and University of Georgia Cooperative Extension specialist in food safety and home food preservation in UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences. She is slated to get started January 2022.

Adulting is hard.

Before the COVID-19 crisis shut down in-person activities, Zoe Soltanmammedova held monthly meetings of a Kids Cooking Club for 4-H members at the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension office in Cobb County.

A team of University of Georgia Cooperative Extension agents, led by a faculty member in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, will address consumer questions on food safety and preservation while overseeing the National Center for Home Food Preservation on an interim basis.

Public health experts are imploring Americans to avoid the kind of large gatherings that mark the holidays.

Food safety experts have been warning consumers against washing and rinsing raw poultry for many years, citing how the bacteria in poultry juices can spread and cross contaminate other foods, utensils and surfaces. A USDA report shows that many aren't listening.