SMALLPRINT:WHEN YOU sit down to tuck into Christmas dinner on Sunday week, could you be getting more than you bargained for?

The bird that will take centre stage on many tables around the country on Christmas day – and pride of place in sandwiches after that – could be home to some microbial hitch-hikers when raw.

Much of the time the festive meal has no ill-effects – other than some indigestion from eating too much perhaps. But you can reduce the risk of the bugs really spoiling the holidays by taking a few precautions when storing, handling and cooking the raw poultry. One of the usual suspects of food poisoning in the western world is a bacterium that many people haven’t even heard of – Campylobacter.

That’s according to Dr David McCleery, chief specialist microbiologist with Safefood, who describes how the bug can be present on raw poultry.

“Campylobacter is the [most common] cause of bacterial food poisoning in the western world, and Ireland is no exception to that,” he says.

If we eat live Campylobacter bacteria, it can move to the intestines and can result in unpleasant symptoms like diarrhoea, so avoiding exposure in the first place is a good idea.

Keeping the Campylobacter from multiplying on foods is one step – storing the turkey at low temperatures is important, and McCleery recommends asking the butcher to keep the bird until Christmas Eve, then after that making sure it is kept cold until it’s time to prepare dinner.

And if you really feel the need to clean the turkey before cooking, wipe it with a disposable paper towel then chuck the towel straight in the bin: research commissioned by Safefood has shown that washing it can spread Campylobacter far and wide.

“By washing [the turkey] people are just splashing germs around – they can splash more then a metre from the sink in aerosols and drips and splashes,” says McCleery. “Then you have to lift the turkey out and put it into the baking tray, so a whole kitchen area tends to get contaminated with whatever is on the bird.”

Cleaning your hands, the worktop and any utensils straight after you put the turkey in the oven reduces the chance of potential bugs contaminating other foods, then the trick is to cook the poultry well enough to kill the bugs, he says.

But when it comes to the Christmas dinner centrepiece, its physical size can also be something to be reckoned with.

“The turkey is probably the biggest item that you cook through the whole year, and the Campylobacter tends to be in the guts of the bird, that is why it is so important to cook the cavity of a chicken or a turkey,” says McCleery – who suggests cooking the stuffing separately.

“If you stuff a bird the air will not circulate in the body cavity, so you have to make sure it is cooked thoroughly,” he says. “The safest way to cook stuffing is separate from the bird – if you must stuff it at all, stuff it in the neck cavity only.”

Leftovers can also be a breeding ground for bugs that cause food poisoning, and the trick here is to cool food down quickly (portioning turkey helps with that process), store it in a container in the fridge and reheat it well before tucking in for subsequent rounds, adds McCleery.

For more information on food storage, handling and preparation at Christmas, see safefood.eu