Halloween can be a fun and spooky time of year for all with sweet treats and parties and the grand event of trick-or-treating.
To make sure this year’s trick-or-treating experience stays fun, Environmental Health Services recommends the following food safety tips for your scary celebration.
- Talk to your kids about not accepting and eating anything that isn’t commercially wrapped.
- Inspect wrapped treats before consuming for signs of tampering, such as tears, tiny holes, discoloration, etc. Throw away anything that looks suspicious.
- If juice or cider is served at a party, check to make sure it is pasteurized. Unpasteurized juice can contain harmful bacteria.
- Before bobbing for apples, wash the apples thoroughly under cool running water.
- For an alternative to bobbing for apples, try this fun game with paper and magnets from FightBAC.org.
- Always keep perishable foods chilled until serving time and don’t let them sit out for more than two hours at room temperature (1 hour in temperatures above 90 degrees F).
Halloween should just be about ghosts and goblins scaring us, not the food!
Have a safe and happy holiday!