Ready or not, the holidays are here. This is the time for a lot of Americans who’re used to preparing easy meals serve safely multi-course feasts.

This just isn’t a simple task. Explosions some types According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, food poisoning increases in November and December. contaminated turkey, CDC researchers found that undercooked stuffing and germy sauce from holiday buffets led to past illnesses and even deaths.

Preparing large meals in a way that avoids common hazards that may make you sick could be difficult for infrequent cooks, said Donald Schaffner, a food science expert at Rutgers University.

“Cooking takes longer with large masses of food. Refrigeration takes longer for large quantities of food,” said Schaffner, who co-hosts the food safety podcast “Risky or Not?”

Along with podcast co-host Benjamin Chapman, a food scientist at North Carolina State University, Schaffner outlined common ways to make holiday meals each festive and secure.

Prepare the turkey

According to turkey producer Butterball, nearly 90% of U.S. hosts plan to serve turkey for Thanksgiving this 12 months.

However, raw turkey can harbor disease-causing bacteria akin to salmonella, Campylobacter and other germs. It must be handled safely to prevent these insects from contaminating the surfaces of fridges, sinks and kitchen counters.

A frozen bird must first be thawed. Schaffner said there are several accepted methods, including in the refrigerator, in the microwave or in cold running water.

“All these methods pose risks,” he warned.

According to the Department of Agriculture, a frozen turkey takes about 24 hours for each 4 to 5 kilos of weight to thaw in the refrigerator. If using the microwave or cold water method, the bird must be cooked immediately. For detailed information on how to handle turkeys safely, try defrosting and cooking calculators created by USDA.

And don’t wash the turkey. Rinsing it in the sink is a nasty idea, although many cooks still stick with this practice, often out of habit, Chapman said.

“Anything that hits that surface and causes splashes will basically spread the contaminants throughout the kitchen,” he said.

Instead, dry the turkey with paper towels and throw it away, or use a kitchen towel and sanitize it in the laundry.

What about baking?

The turkey must reach a cooking temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit before serving. The best way to check if it’s cooked is to use a tip-sensitive digital thermometer inserted into the inner thigh without touching the bone.

Don’t depend on the plastic pop-up thermometers on some industrial turkeys. Chapman’s previous research shows that these buttons could be activated long before the bird actually finishes.

At the same time, don’t judge the doneness of the meat based on signs akin to whether the skin is golden brown, whether the meat isn’t any longer pink, or whether the juice is obvious.

“None of them are good indicators of temperature,” Chapman said.

Extras and leftovers

How you handle the remainder of the meal – mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans or sweet potatoes – is just as vital as the major course. It may be very vital to avoid the so-called danger zones, i.e. temperatures from 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, where bacteria can easily grow.

The secret is keeping hot food cold and hot in the pipeline, and cooling the whole lot quickly, Schaffner said.

“It is recommended that leftovers be refrigerated within two hours of taking them out of the oven,” he said.

Be sure to store dense foods akin to sliced ​​turkey, cooked sweet potatoes, or gravy in shallow containers in the refrigerator in order that they cool down more quickly. Schaffner’s recent research found that food refrigerated in containers not more than 2 inches deep poses little risk of developing dangerous germs.

Keep it clean

One of the key ways to avoid food poisoning is to thoroughly clean your kitchen.

Wash your hands before preparing food and after handling raw poultry. When handling raw meat and fresh foods akin to vegetables and salads, use separate cutting boards, knives and other kitchen utensils.

Special attention must be paid to any surface which will change into contaminated. It is very important to first clean with soap and water after which sanitize with a disinfectant – a two-step process.

Monique Rodriguez, founder of hair care brand Mielle Organics, is not letting the once Black-owned brand fall out of favor with out a fight.

On Saturday, November 23, Rodriguez posted “very important news” on her Instagram, condemning influencers who’ve made what the founder calls defamatory claims that Mielle products have caused damage to their hair.

After thanking all the “explorers and mavericks” who stuck with the brand during difficult times, she revealed something about the original TikTok creator who began a hair care “witch hunt.”

“This creator was paid by one of our competitors,” she said of the creator, who Rodriguez said “falsely” claimed that the brand’s Rosemary Mint Oil formula had modified, causing her hair to fall out.

She claimed that the creator was “earning commission” by running a smear campaign against Mielle products while promoting one other brand’s products. Rodriguez then said the creator’s videos were “removed because people deserve to know the truth” and whether there have been “ulterior motives” behind spreading misinformation.

“Yes, this creator received a commission to promote a competitor’s product, spreading misinformation about our products for his own benefit,” she explained, noting that she tried to handle the matter “quietly” before being transparent with fans online.

The 39-year-old entrepreneur assured her followers that Mielle products were made with due care and asked them to spread the message of this discovery.

After adding thoughts on acting truthfully and telling the truth, Rodriguez concluded the video by emphasizing the importance of “standing by your business.”

Her comments section video proved that the brand owner has solid supporters of the multi-million brand.

“I said this at the beginning because I am a publicist and crisis manager. It was easy to tell it was a calculated smear campaign,” one person said.

One person commented: “I wish you would have gone lower and named the tik toker and competitor. Some people don’t deserve grace,” in response to Rodriguez’s statement in her film, “when they fall, we rise high.”

This one person provided an important testimonial about the product. “Your mint rosemary line is the reason my hair is healthy and growing. People are unfortunately petty. However, I am glad that the issue has been raised.”

And this follower, one other said: “This is so nasty!!! Ugh! There is room for victory for everyone. This is so low. I hate it. I’m sorry, Mo!”

While there have been outcries of support for these products, some commenters claimed that Mielle’s had torn off the edges reasonably than put them in place.

One disgruntled user said: “No…. I even have experienced this personally with my daughter using peppermint oil. Her hair fell out. Now she has stopped taking it and is simply taking castor oil and her hairline is back to normal. This is near, if not gaslighting. Something is occurring and I, my daughter, are loyal customers, but after this I don’t need to return back. I feel betrayed by the brand and product. As a black woman in tech, I realize it’s vital to advocate for one another, but when something fails or goes fallacious, black or white people will step up and come clean with it. I won’t come back.”

Another wrote the same review: “My hair has definitely fallen out and thinned. I still have leftover products that I don’t want to touch.”

One person wasn’t convinced the videos contained any malice. “There is no sabotage, I have first-hand experience. Your product made my hair fall out. When I complained, I was told it was due to a formula change. Something is wrong @mielleorganics.”

Reactions to Rodriguez’s latest video seemed significantly better than her September post.

In the video, Rodriguez addressed these allegations, emphasizing that the formulas of Mielle products haven’t modified since the brand was acquired by Procter & Gamble. She assured consumers that these products are made of healthy ingredients and formulated to supply protected and effective results.

Apart from the claims of hair thinning and hair clumps falling out, many individuals weren’t satisfied with the owner’s attitude and lack of transparency.

“You said nothing in response to these allegations as someone who has purchased your products for years. It’s time for transparency. We don’t need a story,” one person said regarding the alleged change in ingredients since the merger.

This comment echoed the same sentiment: “I used these products before she sold the company to Proctor & Gamble (P&G), which owns many products in most of the United States…Disappointed to no longer be Black Owned.”

Despite the fallout from quite a few videos from creators claiming Mielle’s is behind their hair disasters, the Black Hair community stays divided on whether or not they need to proceed supporting the brand.

As any woman in or approaching midlife (including this creator) can let you know, there is a certain sense of invisibility that comes with it, irrespective of how “pretty” you might be or were. For Halle Berry, now 58 and arguably considered one of the beautiful women on this planet at any age, this invisibility manifests itself in not feeling known for all of her other qualities.

“I always knew I was more than just a shell I walked around in. I dreamed that someone would tell me something other than: ‘Oh my God, you’re beautiful,'” says the Oscar winner for the film an extremely popular interview with Fortune magazine while speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit on October 15. “I wanted to hear different words. I know I’m more than that, so as I get older, I’ve decided to age gracefully and naturally.”

“I think it’s a shame that we as women are told that we have to find a way to stay ‘forever young’ (or) ‘forever 30,’ as if we can’t be human and do what we were born to do.” Berry continued. “We are born to get older and die. But in some way, as women, we’ve to do the unthinkable; we’ve to discover a way to do it and unfortunately we turn into monsters in trying to do it. That’s why I want to be an advocate for the thought of ​​allowing yourself to age gracefully, knowing that you simply are more than simply the shell you walk around in.”

After a long time of being a Hollywood star, Berry is no stranger to reinventing herself; a task that always proved difficult in a beauty-obsessed industry. Its latest evolution concerns the role of the entrepreneur, startup menopause-focused wellness brand Re-Spin. Having been an advocate for “change” in recent times, even lobbying for health care laws, Berry proudly declared on stage on the summit, “I’m in menopause… How liberating is that?”

Elaborating on the subject for Fortune, she explained: “You know, historically speaking, women just get older as they get older, right? Men are becoming sexy – they are graying, they are silver foxes. We’re just old, right? We are haggard and society tells us or has told us that our time is up; we should go out to pasture. We’re done with the years of having children – we were seen as the main purpose of being here – having children – and when we’re done with that at the age of 35, 40, we’ll have nothing left.

“Well, I know we’re just getting started,” she continued. “We’re just getting started, but women don’t understand it yet because society tells us otherwise. So they don’t want to talk about being middle-aged because it means there’s no room for them; they are not wanted. So it’s about us as women reclaiming that narrative, right, and changing the way we are perceived throughout our (lives).”

For someone like Halle Berry – a girl blessed with beauty, fame and fortune – this may occasionally seem easy to say. But irrespective of who you might be, she says the important thing to being confident in aging is maintaining not only our physical selves, but a holistic view of the nonphysical traits and interests that every of us brings to the table.

“When you only focus on your physical self, it’s really hard, if that starts to change, to feel confident – ​​and it will change. Everyone needs to know this: it will change,” she emphasized. “But if you’ve been focused on this your whole life, you’ll feel like you’re completely out of control and you’ll start to feel like you know your value is declining. But when you know that you are something more and you work on your inner self – you continue to read, develop, learn, be curious and educate yourself, start new companies; you know, follow your passions, follow your dreams – when you do all of that, you have no choice but to feel good about yourself,” she added.

For women especially, Berry hopes to emphasize that aging is not only inevitable, but potentially exciting.

“Getting older is a privilege. “Getting older is a privilege and we should look at it that way,” she said. “We should feel this way as we get older. We should feel like we are the crown jewels of our society.”