Ah, leftovers. They’re economical, delicious, and . . . deadly? The Canadian Government seems to think so, which is why they issued a health bulletin entitled “Food Safety Tips for Leftovers” this week to protect Canadian citizens from the dangers lurking in their Tupperware.

The Food Safety tips list off a number of obvious helpful pieces of advice divided into a variety of different categories.

On Hot Food: “very hot items can first be cooled at room temperature”

On Microwaving: “only use containers that are labeled microwave safe”

On Defrosting: “use the defrost setting”

On Unnecessary Clutter: “avoid overstocking your refrigerator”

On Cleanliness: “always use a clean container to hold leftovers”

On Suspicion: “never rely on your nose, eyes, or taste buds to judge the safety of food”

Oh, Canada. Thank you. Without this list, thousands (or even millions!) of Canadians might have burned their tongues on food taken out of dirty containers stored in crowded fridges, microwaved on paper plates, and subjected to a quick sniff test before being stuffed into innocent mouths. We wish you had included a quick tutorial for some of these tips (like these step-by-step instructions on how to make ice cubes, for example) but we’re just grateful that you’re doing what you can to protect Canadians from their leftover poutine sandwiches.

H/T Health Canada + PicThx FitDay

Erika GrantTwitterFacebook

Erika Grant is an Orange County native in a long-distance relationship with the Bay Area. She's enthusiastic about all things vegan/vegetarian, has cheese dreams on the regular that make it difficult to commit to the vegan lifestyle, and gets obscenely excited about avocados in anything.