Food safety tips for holiday meals from a microbiologist [Video]

Food-borne illness – commonly known as food poisoning – is caused by eating food with germs on it.

Those germs can come from just about anywhere and be spread to just about anything – including your dinner guests.

With many people getting ready to welcome family and friends around the table, here are some tips on how to make holiday feasting as germ-free as possible.

According to the federal government, about four million Canadians get food poisoning each year. 

Symptoms of the most common culprits – norovirus, listeria, salmonella, E. coli and campylobacter – include diarrhea, vomiting and fever. 

“If you buy this wonderful turkey for Christmas, you have a 20-per-cent chance of the turkey being contaminated with salmonella and a 40-per-cent chance of the turkey being contaminated with campylobacter,” said Dr. Michael Gänzle, a professor of food microbiology at the University of Alberta.

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