Christmas dinner is a great way to send the year off on a high note, but shortcuts in meal preparation techniques could leave you with a stomach ache or worse to ring in 2021.

While common sense practices like effective handwashing, using a different set of knives and cutting boards for raw meat and vegetable preparation and cooking food items to the correct temperatures will go a long way to being safe, Nutrition and Wellness Specialist Ann Parker from the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach has one circumstance that is commonly ignored.

“When you are working with things that should be kept cold or cooked and then kept cold after that, make sure that you’re only having things out for about an hour at a time. As soon as you hit two hours of something that should be kept in the fridge on your kitchen counter, then it can really start growing bacteria that can make us sick. Anything that should be kept cold goes back in the fridge as soon as possible or if it’s been cooked, it gets in the fridge to cool down.”

The United States Department of Agriculture recommends the internal temperature of cooked poultry reach a minimum of 165 degrees Fahrenheit for safe consumption. The recommended temperature for a cooked fresh ham is 145 degrees Fahrenheit.