Dec. 25 power outage raises question: Do I have to trash my turkey?

After tens of thousands of Nova Scotians lost power during a Christmas Day windstorm, some of those fortunate enough to have a feast in the oven were left with a tough question: do I have to trash my turkey? 

According to a chef who's cooked "over 10,000" turkeys, the answer is yes.

The danger zone

Chef Luis Clavel, Culinary Team Canada member and manager of Culinary Team Nova Scotia, said the old adage "when in doubt, throw it out" still rings true when dealing with a power outage and partially cooked or uncooked meat. 

"If the power outage happens when food was cooking, you only have a window of an hour and a half before you have to start thinking about bacteria," said Clavel, who estimates that he's cooked between 10,000 and 12,000 turkeys throughout his career. 

He said poultry, like most perishable foods, needs to be kept out of "the danger zone," either below 4 C (40 F) or above 60 C (140 F), to limit the amount of potentially harmful bacteria growth. Turkey that is partially cooked and then left to cool for more than an hour could become vulnerable to campylobacter bacteria or salmonella. 

Health Canada guidelines on poultry handling state that whole birds should be cooked "until the temperature of the thickest part of the breast or thigh is 82 C (180 F) and pieces of poultry reach 74 C (165 F)."

The guidelines also outline the importance of monitoring the bird's temperature before and after cooking.

Clavel said in any case, using a meat thermometer to keep an eye on the internal temperature is always recommended, and even if the power is restored within an hour and a half, it's safest to discard the turkey completely. 

"Getting yourself or your family sick over the holidays or new year isn't worth the money you spent on the meat," said Clavel. 

'The bird has to go'

When her home in Lower Sackville, N.S., lost power, Angela Hix and her husband, who have both worked in the food-service industry, weighed the risk with their Christmas dinner.

"I thought — what do we do, safety-wise?" said Hix, who estimates their 3.5-kilogram turkey had about an hour and a half left to cook when the power went out. She said they figured they had just over an hour before the fowl might get foul.

"After about two hours in the dark, we decided, 'OK, that's it. The bird has to go. This turkey is toast,'" said Hix. "My husband went and did the safety check near the legs and it was all still bright pink. We put it right in the green bin." 

A solemn Christmas

Hix said normally the couple cooks a turkey twice that size, but because her father passed away this year, they were planning on a quiet Christmas dinner to themselves. 

Losing the turkey was an unfortunate "cherry on top" to an already solemn Christmas, said Hix, but got over the loss quickly when thinking about others who may have also lost meals in the outage.

"We started thinking about all the people [who] have turkeys donated to them because they can't afford it. Then they lost their Christmas meal. We were lucky to have ours in the first place."