Brits warned when to throw away Christmas leftovers before they become dangerous

Now we're a couple of days clear of Christmas dinner it's time to talk about what you're going to do with all those leftovers.

Almost no Christmas dinner goes completely eaten on the big day, especially if you've tackled an entire turkey, but part of the festive fun is having meals from the leftovers.

For some people the Boxing Day turkey sandwich is a bigger treat than the actual Christmas dinner itself, but there's only so long you can leave that decaying carcass in your fridge before it needs to be thrown away.

Assuming your turkey didn't go rotten before you cooked it, which would have ruined it anyway, it's probably spent much of the past year in a freezer before you bought it and cooked it.

However, now it's cooked and in your fridge the clock is ticking for you to finish it off properly.

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According to the NHS you shouldn't really keep cooked food in your fridge for more than a couple of days before eating it, so if you want to use up the Christmas dinner leftovers then now is a good time to do it.

Experts over in the US reckon that turkey can be kept in the fridge for between three and four days before you really need to throw it away.

This is all assuming that your fridge is working and able to keep things below 5°C consistently, otherwise the bacteria will spread faster and devour your food before you even really have a chance to polish it off yourself.

Ignoring this advice could cause you some problems, as E.coli and salmonella love to hop onto meat which could made you even worse in the long run.

You don't really want to be spending New Year's Eve parked on the toilet and clutching your stomach because you kept the Christmas dinner in the fridge too long.

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So there you have it, if you've got a bunch of Christmas dinner leftovers in your fridge it's time to make something of them, though a bit of turkey will probably be alright for another day or two.

If you're already feeling unwell then it might not be the leftovers but who prepared the Christmas dinner that caused it.

Some people will come down with a norovirus, or 'winter vomiting bug', which spreads when people who've got it don't properly wash their hands and do something like preparing food.

You'll know if you have a norovirus when the contents of your stomach are violently expelled from both ends of your body.

Doctors advise you not to prepare food while you're sick or for 48 hours after your symptoms stop, and to stay away from other people during this time period.

Topics: Christmas, Food And Drink, Health

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker