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Home My WebLink AboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 2015-10-07, Page 88 Lucknow Sentinel • Wednesday, October 7, 2015 Let's talk turkey about food safety Huron -Kinloss Council tackles planning issues Huron County Health Unit The Huron County Health Unit encourages everyone to focus on safe food handling practices as they prepare Thanksgiving meals. "We want people to enjoy their celebrations and reduce their risk of foodborne illnesses," says Public Health Inspector Jessica Van Geffen. Thawing and preparing turkey can be challenging. Van Geffen rec- ommends storing turkey in a refrig- erator at 4° C or lower, or a freezer, immediately after it is purchased. "Thawing your turkey in the refrigerator takes time but is the saf- est way to thaw," she says. "It should take one day of thawing for every 1.8 kg (4 lbs.) of turkey. Or you can thaw in cold running water in the sink." The Health Unit also recom- mends cooking stuffing outside the turkey in a separate dish. "As a turkey cooks, its juices run into the stuffing and these juices may contain salmonella bacteria," says Van Geffen. "Often the stuffing does not reach a safe temperature to kill the bacteria." If you do stuff the bird, use a probe thermometer to make sure the mid- dle of the stuffing reaches a safe min- imum temperature of 74° C (165 ° F). If it hasn't, put the stuffing back in the oven to continue cooking. Whether your turkey is raw or cooked, it should not sit at room temperature for more than two hours. Foodborne bacteria grows rapidly in this temperature "danger zone" (between 4° C and 60° C). More information on food safety can be found on the Health Unit website, www.huronhealthunit.ca. Here are ways to help ensure a safe Thanksgiving meal: • Wash hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food. • Clean cutting boards, utensils, and countertops with warm water and dish soap. Rinse and sanitize with mild bleach mixture. • Separate raw meat, poultry and seafood from other foods in your grocery bag, refrigerator and coun- tertops. Use separate cutting boards. • Keep raw meat, poultry, sea- food, and their juices away from food items that won't be cooked. • Cook food to a safe internal tem- perature. For awhole turkey or chicken you want to cook to 82° C (180° F). • Insert a probe food thermome- ter into the thickest part of the food to test whether food is thoroughly cooked. For a turkey, stick the probe thermometer in the meatiest part of the thigh. • Keep the fridge at 4°C (40°F) or below. • Divide leftovers into small por- tions, put in shallow containers and store in the refrigerator to quickly cool. Chill leftovers within two hours. • Use leftovers within two to three days or freeze them and use within two to six months. • Reheat leftovers to 74° C (165 ° F). Valerie Gillies Lucknow Sentinel There were three major items addressed at the Planning Advisory Committee Meeting held in the Township of Huron -Kinloss Council Chambers on September 28, 2015. The first matter was to address a Zoning By-law Amendment that has been in negotiations for many years. The request was to expand the settlement area of the former Hamlet of Kinloss to recognize an existing contractor's yard belong- ing to Les Bushell. Laurie Schnurr of Cuesta Planning Consultants presented the facts and recom- mendations to the council. In the past there have been sev- eral issue directly related to the business and its operation which had caused concerns leading to non -passage of the amendment. Schnurr and Bushell both answered to the previous concerns and discussed the remaining issues and how they are to be addressed. Following this presentation, Alvery Hayes, who had registered as a delegation as a neighbouring property -owner, was given his chance to state his concerns. His major concerns were that there would be fuel and chemicals involved with the on-site fleet of vehicles that could cause harm to the water in Silver Lake. At the conclusion of discussions, Mayor Twolan reminded all pre- sent that "it has taken a lot of years NEW DENTAL SERVICE No Additional Fee REVERSE NUMBNESS twice as fast OraVerse is the first and only dental local anesthesia reversal agent. Now you will be able to smile, speak and drink normally much sooner! Hanover (226) 277-0745 - A Dawson Dental Family Practice - Lucknow (226) 277-0740 and thousands of dollars to get to this point." Council has been advised that the current applica- tion is the best negotiated so far and that it is in the best interest of both the Council and the business to move forward now. Bushell has initiated the changes that were specified in the past. The new By-law would allow Huron - Kinloss inspectors to attend the property at any time to address any new concerns. It was agreed by Council and Bushell that a septic inspection would be done as soon as it can be scheduled. The word- ing that stated the maximum num- ber of trucks being 25 on the lot was changed to indicate that the total would be inclusive for trucks and other equipment on the site to avoid problems of crowding and increased impact on the site and to neighbouring properties, including Silver Lake, in the future. The Zoning By-law Amendment was passed with these stipulations in place. The second matter on the agenda was a Review of Rural and Agricul- tural Policies. The purpose of this review is to more closely align the policies in the County and Munici- pal Official Plans to reduce duplica- tion and to address discrepancies. Presenters were David Smith for Rural and Agricultural Polices for both the County and Huron -Kinloss Official Plan. Smith summed up with saying, "there are very few items that vary significantly." Pierre Chauvin from MHBC Plan- ning Consultants provided com- ments on removing the policies form the Huron -Kinloss Official Plan. Chauvin advised that any decisions made by the Township must conform to the County Plan. Some changes in wording was required to conform to provincial policy. The benefits of removing the policies at the Township level is to allow for relying on the County Pol- icy to set the standards and deal with applications and enforcement. It was noted that the previous poli- cies in the Huron -Kinloss Official Plan had more conditions surround- ing policies concerning intensive live- stock This has now been addressed in the County Official Plan which has brought it to the point where there is essentially no difference in the poli- cies at both levels. The final matter was Official Plan Growth and Development in Huron -Kinloss. Chauvin again spoke to Council on this matter and gave a comprehensive review. The review is to address the crea- tion of subdivisions in recognized settlement areas in Huron -Kinloss which are Ripley, Lucknow and the lakeshore area. Projections for growth of each of the settlement areas were presented which indicated that there are lands available for development in each of the areas, but that although Ripley and Lucknow have enough land for growth over many hundreds of years, the lakeshore area has only enough land to grow for 10 years, according to current numbers. This requires growth management con- cerning population and land inven- tory. Source water protection must be addressed. Preliminary mapping and reviews have been completed which revealed discrepancies between Huron -Kinloss designa- tions, County designations and Conservation designations on some areas. MHBC had also held a stake- holders meeting earlier in the day to get recommendations, expectations and concerns from those who are the most impacted by growth and development. MHBC will continue to work on the Official Plan Growth and Devel- opment. It was commended that Huron -Kinloss planning is well ahead of planning by Bruce County. Due to the upcoming long weekend, all advertising and editorial deadlines for the October 14th issue are Lueknow Sentine