The Thanksgiving holiday weekend can quickly go south if proper food safety guidelines are not followed both in the preparation process and the storage process.

Caitlin Mellendorf is a Nutrition Educator with the University of Illinois Extension in DeWitt, Macon, and Piatt Counties, and indicates it starts with making sure that turkey is cooked to the USDA recommended temperatures - and to make sure that happens, have those food thermometers ready.

A practice that many may still use but is now considered unsafe is thawing meat at room temperature. Mellendorf explains this has been a practice not recommended for some time now simply because bacteria in the meat can still thrive when thawed at that room temperature pace. It is recommended to let your meat thaw in the refrigerator.

When that Thanksgiving dinner has been successfully and safely served, Mellendorf says you do not want the food sitting out more than two hours before you get it into the refrigerator to chill. Additionally, those Thanksgiving leftovers are going to be good for roughly four days in the refrigerator.

You can visit extension.illinois.edu/turkey for more helpful food preparation tips. Additionally, the USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline is available to answer food safety questions via phone at 1-888-mphotline or e-mail mphotline@usda.gov.