--- title: Thanksgiving Leftovers Food Safety Tips description: A federal food safety agency is offering guidelines on the safe storage and preparation of Thanksgiving leftovers. canonical: https://time.com/5462345/thanksgiving-leftovers-tips/ author: Alejandro de la Garza article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-23T17:25:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:06:59.788Z article:section: Health og:title: Here's How Long You Can Safely Keep Eating Your Thanksgiving Leftovers og:description: And other important food safety tips og:url: https://time.com/5462345/thanksgiving-leftovers-tips/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2dd64892c349234/69893fc8b21a9c605a4ff874/thanksgiving-leftovers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Thanksgiving Leftovers og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How Long You Can Safely Keep Eating Your Thanksgiving Leftovers twitter:description: And other important food safety tips twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2dd64892c349234/69893fc8b21a9c605a4ff874/thanksgiving-leftovers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How Long You Can Safely Keep Eating Your Thanksgiving Leftovers > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=71dff463-cb30-40f0-a6f0-2fdc90d175a1&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A Holiday Obsession: Turkey by the Numbers [Watch (HLS stream): A Holiday Obsession: Turkey by the Numbers](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FSBvFQfk.m3u8) (2:01)  _Published 2018-11-20. A Holiday Obsession: Turkey by the Numbers_  by [Alejandro de la Garza](https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/)  ## Alejandro de la Garza Nov 23, 2018 5:25 PM UTC A Holiday Obsession: Turkey by the Numbers  by [Alejandro de la Garza](https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/)  ## Alejandro de la Garza Nov 23, 2018 5:25 PM UTC For those of us wondering how long we can get away with picking at our Thanksgiving leftovers, the United States government is here to help. This Thanksgiving season, the government is offering recommendations on how to safely store and consume your holiday leftovers. The food storage tips, which include such insights as a recommendation to refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours, were issued by [FoodSafety.gov](https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/events/thanksgiving/index.html), an online portal to food safety information collected by Federal agencies like the The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The information also includes a directive not to store stuffing inside a turkey, to avoid eating leftovers more than three or four days old, and to keep leftovers in a cooler with ice or frozen gel packs “if the food is traveling home with a guest who lives more than two hours away.” The site also recommends only storing food in shallow containers to decrease cooling time in the refrigerator and limit the amount of time your food spends at warmer unsafe temperatures. The guidelines, which come alongside instructions for safely preparing a turkey, may be especially helpful in the wake of a series of holiday season food safety issues. Earlier this week, the CDC warned U.S. consumers to not eat [romaine lettuce](http://time.com/5461594/romaine-lettuce-cdc-e-coli-contamination/), which could be contaminated with E. coli. 32 people in 11 states have been infected in the outbreak, including 13 who have been hospitalized, according to the CDC. The FSIS has also recalled turkey products linked to a salmonella outbreak, as well as certain raw beef and Duncan Hines cake mix products which could be contaminated with the bacteria. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5462345/thanksgiving-leftovers-tips/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5462345/thanksgiving-leftovers-tips/"},"headline":"Here's How Long You Can Safely Keep Eating Your Thanksgiving Leftovers","datePublished":"2018-11-23T17:25:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-13T08:06:59.788Z","description":"And other important food safety tips","url":"https://time.com/5462345/thanksgiving-leftovers-tips/","keywords":["Public Health","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2dd64892c349234/69893fc8b21a9c605a4ff874/thanksgiving-leftovers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alejandro de la Garza","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alejandro-de-la-garza/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte2dd64892c349234/69893fc8b21a9c605a4ff874/thanksgiving-leftovers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Thanksgiving Leftovers","caption":"Thanksgiving Leftovers","creditText":"DebbiSmirnoff—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5462345/thanksgiving-leftovers-tips/","name":"Here's How Long You Can Safely Keep Eating Your Thanksgiving Leftovers"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Holiday Obsession: Turkey by the Numbers","description":"A Holiday Obsession: Turkey by the Numbers","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FSBvFQfk/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-11-20T16:37:42.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FSBvFQfk.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5462345/thanksgiving-leftovers-tips/","duration":"PT2M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5462345/thanksgiving-leftovers-tips/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```