Myth: It's hard to find food safety information.

Answer: BUSTED!

With the holidays coming up and company coming over, food safety is on our mind. There’s lots of information at your fingertips on the web or by phone.

• Foodsafety.gov is a good one-stop website for information about food recalls and food safety.
  
  • On the site, you can find a link to their blog for even more "practical information and tips from the experts" on food safety topics. They currently have multiple posts on cooking turkey safely.
  • You can also use the Ask Karen feature on their website to either search their database of common food safety questions, to chat online with a food safety expert (available weekdays between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time or by phone at 1-888-674-6854), or to email your question to the hotline to get an answer. There are links to access these services in Spanish or via mobile devices.
• Through November and December Butterball hosts the Turkey Talk hotline at 1-800-BUTTERBALL (1-800-288-8372) weekdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. CST (Central Standard Time). Bilingual assistance is available (English and Spanish). You can also email talkline@butterball.com
• You can find a list of holiday food and recipe hotlines at http://busycooks.about.com/od/holidayrecipesandmenus/a/hotlines.htm
• You can also go to MissouriFamilies.org and search for information on food safety/food handling.

Contributor: Ellen Schuster, M.S., R.D., Associate State Specialist, University of Missouri Extension, schusterer@missouri.edu, 573-882-1933