Thanksgiving Cooks Serve up a Side of Safety to ...( Taste and safety should go han...),Health

Taste and safety should go hand-in-hand; look for Underwriters

Laboratories' safety Mark and have a safer Thanksgiving

NORTHBROOK, Ill., Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- If you are like most Thanksgiving chefs, you find a way to create culinary magic while working in potentially perilous conditions; children dashing through the kitchen; pots bubbling away on the stove-top; and recipes scattered across kitchen countertops. If this sounds familiar -- perhaps it comes as no surprise then to learn that Thanksgiving is reported to be the peak day of the year for kitchen fires.

Underwriters Laboratories (UL), one of the world's leading product safety testing organizations, reminds consumers that when the time comes to spend hours roasting a Thanksgiving turkey and crafting the customary fixings, no tradition -- no matter how delicious -- is worth sacrificing the safety of your family.

"Whether baking, roasting or frying the family turkey this year, UL urges consumers to evaluate appliances wisely," said John Drengenberg, consumer affairs manager of Underwriters Laboratories. "Some electric cooking products that hit holiday shelves may claim to make Thanksgiving Day a breeze. But before bringing any item to the cashier and into your kitchen, be sure it has been tested and certified for safety."

For everything from electric knives to slow cookers to food processors, the easiest way to make sure you have a safer product is to look for an accredited safety mark, like the UL Mark. The UL Mark is one of the most widely recognized and trusted symbols of safety among consumers, and confirms a product has been tested and certified to meet specific safety standards.

UL also points out that while some cooking items meet the applicable safety standards and receive certification, others have been deemed unsafe overall and refused the UL Mark. One of the more popular but most notorious items is the turkey fryer. Because turkey fryers pose
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