We’ve recently seen a bunch of E Ink smartphones released for eye-friendly productivity on the go. But what if you don’t want to give up your handset, yet would like an ePaper assistant on tap? That’s where the Reetle SmartInk I comes in.
First things first, the name. The startup explains that the shared brand and product moniker represents two aspects of its design. The first declares its use as a reading device, while the second half “symbolizes the tough shell that protects your phone” in the form of a beetle. Put them together – while snipping out a few letters – and you get Reetle.
The Reetle SmartInk I is compatible with iPhone 14 series or later handsets
Reetle/Kickstarter
The second thing to note is that if you’re an Android phone user, this “E Ink hub” is not for you as it’s currently only compatible with newer iPhones (iPhone 14 to 17 series models plus the Air). The concept gives a little more utility to your average protective case, shaping up as a 3.97-inch E Ink touchscreen reader at 235 pixels-per-inch.
So rather than using an app to consume ebooks or read work documents on the bright and color-rich main screen, you can do your eyes a favor and switch to the slim display under tempered glass that takes up the lower section of the magnetically secured Reetle case. In addition to AI-powered reading tools, the hub also enables voice-to-text capture – meaning that there’s potential for transcribing a call while you’re talking.
Eye-friendly reading plus productivity apps on the back of an iPhone
Reetle/Kickstarter
The AI can also summarize transcribed notes, sort and store for easy recall, and even translate across more than 100 languages. A basic free package will give you 50 minutes of transcription per month along with a limited allowance for summaries and AI-generated imagery. But there’s a basic business package available for US$99.99 per annum that extends monthly transcription time to 150 minutes, or a higher tier where you get 250 minutes for $149.99 per year.
Widgets, to-do lists, digital business cards or travel documents, QR codes and more can be displayed onscreen too. “Seamless syncing” with other devices over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is promised too. It won’t leech your iPhone’s battery as it has 300-mAh of its own to draw from, which is reckoned good for 7 days on standby or 10 hours of reading or the same for recoding. The devs also report compatibility with MagSafe wireless charging.
The slim case wraps around an iPhone to offer protection plus AI-powered productivity tools
Reetle/Kickstarter
All in, a useful extra something for folks who want more than just drop protection from an outer case. The Reetle SmartInk I has been prototyped on an iPhone 16 Pro but should be compatible with all models from the 14 series onwards. To get it rolling off the production line, the Hong Kong startup has launched on Kickstarter – where pledge levels currently start at around US$120, representing a saving of 40% on the expected retail price.
All crowdfunding campaigns carry an element of risk, and this looks to be Reetle’s first product and first Kickstarter so you might want to keep that in mind before backing the project. If all goes to plan, shipping is estimated to start from February 2026.
REETLE SmartInk I: World’s First AI E-Ink Hub for iPhone
Amazon’s AI-infused Rufus shopping assistant has new features that make it a “faster, more useful, state-of-the-art shopping companion.” Google’s agentic checkout feature “can do the heavy lifting to help you get the perfect item without blowing your budget.” OpenAI on Monday unveiled a free ChatGPT tool it says can generate a personalized gift-buying guide.
New artificial intelligence shopping tools are sprouting right and left just in time for the holidays, when US consumers are expected to spend a record $253 billion online. Technology companies and retailers are rushing to get ahead of a shift in consumer behavior that prognosticators say will one day see people using autonomous agents to research, price and buy products rather than plugging queries into a search engine.
E-commerce hasn’t changed all that much over the past 20 years, and there are signs people are itching for something new. More than 1 in 3 US consumers said they have used AI tools to assist in online shopping, mostly for product research, according to a September survey conducted by Adobe Inc. And the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. forecasts that so-called agentic commerce — a rubric for automated agents aiding purchases or handling transactions entirely — could explode into a $1 trillion business in the US by 2030.
McKinsey could be right, but for the time being, agentic commerce is in an awkward experimental phase, with companies struggling to solve various technical challenges and negotiate partnerships even as they push out a variety of tools and features to see what works and what doesn’t.
Bloomberg asked several AI bots — including Amazon’s Rufus, OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Walmart Inc.’s Sparky — what to buy mom for Christmas. The top suggestion: a cozy bathrobe. Sparky recommended a pink hooded number emblazoned with “Mama Bear,” and ChatGPT suggested buying the robe from Victoria’s Secret. Perplexity Inc.’s AI bot proffered another option found on many gift guides: a $20 wooden photo frame from Etsy.
“There are a lot of really big bets being made right now that consumers want to shop differently and that chat is the way they want to start shopping,” said Emily Pfeiffer, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. “I don’t think this is going to have a huge impact on the way we shop this holiday season.”Play Video
The appeal of AI-aided commerce is obvious. Navigating through millions of products on Amazon, Walmart, Etsy and other retailers can be a tedious process that involves checking desired feature boxes, combing through reviews and scrolling through one advertisement after another. Telling a chatbot to “Find me a pair of well-reviewed hiking boots in my size, under $100, and available for delivery or pickup by Friday,” seems like a much more user-friendly and intuitive experience. And there are early indications that shoppers referred to a website following a conversation with ChatGPT are more informed and prepared to buy than those who conducted a typical Google search, according to SimilarwebLtd., which monitors website traffic and app use.
But for the most part, bots haven’t yet meaningfully improved shopping. Amazon Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy recently gave rivals’ technology a mixed review, noting that agents aren’t very good at tailoring shopping to individual consumers and often display incorrect pricing and delivery estimates.
Retailers’ websites — built to be browsed by humans poking around with clicks and eyeballs — have added machine-readable interfaces over the years for automated tools like web-crawling robots, or for partners to manage inventory. But they weren’t designed to hand off purchasing authority to third parties. That’s why many shopping chatbots essentially grab product listings and then present a user with a web link to buy on that retailer’s site — not much of an advancement over the way things have been done for years.
Bot makers are working to solve various technical challenges. Anthropic PBC and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, for example, have built protocols designed to referee how agents communicate, helping translate queries made in human language into something capable of navigating a catalogue. Microsoft Corp. earlier this year announced a set of tools that helps retailers and other companies translate their websites to a medium agents can more readily interact with. Companies are also working with AI models, backed by immense computing power, that can understand what’s rendered on a web browser and click through menus to make an order.
As with any AI tool, efficacy depends largely on the data it feeds on. Retailers, keen to retain a competitive edge over rivals, have long guarded customer information like purchase history and customer reviews that bots could scrape to improve the shopping experience. Amazon, which captures about 40 cents of every dollar spent online in the US, has maintained a walled garden and doesn’t currently permit autonomous shopping on its site. In a warning shot that could have implications for agentic shopping, the e-commerce giant recently sued Perplexity to try and stop the startup from helping shoppers buy items on its marketplace.
Letting in Perplexity and others could damage Amazon’s advertising business, which is expected to generate almost $70 billion this year by persuading shoppers to click on ads while searching for products. Amazon is developing its own shopping bots. Rufus, launched in February 2024, can browse Amazon’s site, recommend products to shoppers and put them in a cart. In April, the company also introduced a feature — still in public testing — called Buy For Me, which is designed to let shoppers purchase items from other retailers’ sites in the Amazon shopping app.
Walmart has shown itself more willing to work with outside companies. The chain in October said shoppers would be able to purchase apparel, electronics, packaged food and other products directly on ChatGPT by pushing a buy button. The feature is rolling out in stages and is initially limited to single-item purchases, not how shoppers typically buy from the world’s largest retailer.
Partnerships with big retailers and payments processors will be crucial for the likes of OpenAI and Perplexity to become serious players in shopping. The ultimate goal is to let users browse and buy directly in their apps without having to leave. Perplexity this week announced it was incorporating PayPal checkout options into its offering. Without giving people an easy way to buy things, the AI startups will be limited to conducting research, said Juozas Kaziukenas, an independent e-commerce analyst.
“It reminds me of searching online for a recipe and you end up on a website that wants you to read a 10,000-word family story before it tells you what you need to make a meatloaf,” he said. “For some queries, ChatGPT will just throw up a wall of text on you. We have to see how this morphs into something that’s cool to use.”
In Bloomberg’s gift-for-mom experiment, Amazon’s Rufus was the only bot that tried to learn more before answering. It asked about her interests and hobbies as well as the price range. After learning that mom is a fan of classic films, Rufus suggested a DVD set of movies starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
OpenAI is moving in a similar direction with its latest shopping tool. It asks clarifying questions and draws its answers from reviews published on websites, such as Reddit, which the company said may be considered more trustworthy than paid marketing or reviews posted on a product page. Users can use a dedicated “shopping research” button in the chat interface and describe what they’re looking for using instructions like “find a small couch for a studio apartment” or “I need a gift for my 4-year-old niece who loves art.”
Instead of immediately generating a text response, the research tool will ask for more information in a quiz format, taking into consideration possible factors such as budget, color preferences and the desired size of the item. As it gathers information from the web, it will suggest 10 to 15 items along the way, and users will be prompted to click “more like this” or “not interested” to refine the final list.
In a reminder that shopping bots are a work in progress, OpenAI recommended that users visit merchant sites for the most accurate details and cautioned that the new tool “might make mistakes about product details” including price and availability.
Venezuela doesn’t play a large role in the drug trade to the United States, so what is motivating the massive military buildup? Julian E. Barnes, who reports on intelligence and international security, discusses the issues with our senior writer Katrin Bennhold.
The recommendation algorithms used by streaming services are the main reason why Australia’s local artists are seeing a revenue decline, even though Australians themselves are spending more on music, a new report says.
The report warns that other English-speaking countries – aside from the United States – are facing a similar problem.
Australia’s recorded music revenues grew by nearly 28% between 2021 and 2024, from USD $417.5 million to $534 million – but revenues from local acts actually fell during this period, from $50.9 million to $44.8 million. Australian music’s market share fell from 12% to 8% in that time.
Had local revenues kept up with overall growth, “a further $40 million would have flowed back to the domestic industry in just three years,” the report noted.
“Australia is now the global poster child for what ‘market failure’ looks like in recorded music,” the report stated. “A vicious cycle risks taking root, with increasingly fewer domestic success stories resulting in less domestic investment, meaning even lower chances of future success. Intervention is required to stop the rot.”
Source: The Australia Institute
The report, written for public policy think tank The Australia Institute by noted music economist Will Page and Australia Institute Research Director Morgan Harrington, says the problem is algorithmic.
Recommendation algorithms favor content in the user’s own language. That has worked out very well for many local music markets that have their own language, as Page noted in prior research, with local music experiencing a boom in popularity.
“Even countries as small as Denmark, which has just 5.5 million people speaking the same language, are seeing Danish-language artists dominate their charts,” the report noted.
“Sixteen of the top 20 albums (and 15 of the top 20 songs) in Denmark last year were by Danish artists, performing in Danish.”
But in English-language countries like Australia, the UK and Canada, recommendation algorithms overwhelmingly surface music from the US, which is far and away the largest source of English-language recorded music.
“Streaming platforms have turned discovery into a global contest in which Australian artists singing in English are competing with the vast American catalog,” former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wrote in the report’s foreword.
“This digital ‘one-way valve’ that sends our listening offshore reflects a broader challenge of sovereignty in the digital age.”
“Australia is now the global poster child for what ‘market failure’ looks like in recorded music.”
Will Page and Morgan Harrington
To a lesser extent, the UK and Canada are seeing a similar problem.
“The United Kingdom has witnessed an embarrassing drought since streaming took off, failing to produce a truly worldwide success since Dua Lipa in 2017,” the report stated.
“Indeed, in the five years since the start of this decade, the UK has seen only 30 new artists debut among their local top 1,000.”
Canadian artists are “encroached upon by the dominance of its southerly neighbor, with a steady decline of domestic presence compounded by a ‘talent drain’ where many of their own major breakthrough artists are signed and managed out of the United States.”
Yet if the problem in the UK and Canada isn’t as big as it is in Australia, it may be due to the fact the UK continues to have outsized cultural influence, and its legacy acts like Queen and Oasis continue to bring in revenue by the millions.
In Canada’s case, the problem is mitigated in part by various programs governments have set up to protect and prop up the country’s cultural industries, the report says. (And the success of Drake and The Weeknd doesn’t hurt either, we would add.)
The report urges Australia to take a page out of Canada’s book. It points to the Starmaker Fund, a program that provides money to Canadian artists touring internationally to add additional dates to their tours. The program is funded by fees from private broadcasters. (Canada recently updated its telecom laws to require streaming services to pay into the fund as well, something the services are challenging in court.)
“This digital ‘one-way valve’ that sends our listening offshore reflects a broader challenge of sovereignty in the digital age.”
Malcolm Turnbull, ex-Prime Minister of Australia
The report also urges the Australian government to work with streaming services like Spotify to develop local, human content curators for streaming audiences.
“Curators that can compile playlists relevant to a particular city or region (some of whom may also be local radio stations, local concert venues or local artists themselves) can organize and differentiate music in ways that algorithms either cannot or do not,” the report said.
It also notes that some broadcasters have integrated streaming services into their apps and websites, so that listeners can add tracks they like to their playlists. By contrast, popular radio stations run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation only allow listeners to hear the music on the airwaves or on its “comparatively obscure” ABC Listen app, the report said.
“Why not make more of this great local content available to the world on other platforms, including Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube, where lots more people can discover it?”
While the issue of declining local music has been on the radar of Aussie politicians for several years at this point, the idea that streaming services are damaging local music is getting some pushback from Spotify, which recently released survey results showing that 85% of Australians “are satisfied with their ability to discover new music on streaming platforms.”
Spotify’s research also found that 81% of streaming users “say it’s easy to find Australian artists,” and 61% are “satisfied with the amount of Australian music available and accessible to them.”
“The data tells a positive story: that 81% of listeners feel Australian music is visible, accessible, and easy to explore on streaming platforms,” said Alicia Sbrugnera, Spotify’s Head of Music Development for Australia and New Zealand.
“We know that when we support the discoverability of new music, we’re supporting the entire Australian music ecosystem – for artists, venues, labels, and fans – and through this new research, fans have told us that it’s working.”Music Business Worldwide
Advocates say the 16-year-old’s health had been in decline since his arrest in February for allegedly throwing rocks.
Published On 27 Nov 202527 Nov 2025
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Israeli authorities have freed Palestinian American teenager Mohammed Ibrahim after more than nine months of detention, in a case that advocates say embodies Israeli abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Mohammed’s release on Thursday came after a months-long pressure campaign from United States lawmakers and civil rights groups.
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The teenager from Florida was 15 years old in February when he was arrested and taken from his family home in the town of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya, near Ramallah.
He turned 16 while being held in Israeli jail, where he drastically lost weight and contracted a skin infection.
“Words can’t describe the immense relief we have as a family right now, to have Mohammed in his parents’ arms,” Mohammed’s uncle Zeyad Kadur said in a statement.
“We couldn’t believe Mohammed was free until his parents wrapped their arms around him and felt him safe.”
Mohammed was arrested over allegations that he threw rocks at Israeli settlers, which he denied. His father, Zaher Ibrahim and other relatives told Al Jazeera earlier this year that Mohammed was blindfolded and beaten during February’s raid on his family home.
Israeli authorities did not allow him to contact his family while in prison, nor did he have any visitation rights. The only updates his loved ones were receiving were through US officials, who were granted access to Mohammed.
Throughout his detention, his family members pleaded with the administration of US President Donald Trump to push for his release — or at least ensure that he had access to adequate food and healthcare.
“Israeli soldiers had no right to take Mohammed from us in the first place,” Kadur said in Thursday’s statement.
“For more than 9 months, our family has been living a horrific and endless nightmare, particularly Mohammed’s mother and father, who haven’t been able to see or touch their youngest child for nearly a year, all while knowing Israeli soldiers were beating him and starving him.”
The pressure campaign to release Mohammed intensified over the past few weeks amid reports that his health was deteriorating.
Last month, 27 US lawmakers joined a letter urging the Trump administration to push Israel to free him.
Individual legislators, most prominently Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, have also been raising awareness for the case and demanding Mohammed’s release.
Thursday’s statement thanked those who pushed for Mohammed’s release and said the family plans to celebrate his freedom by celebrating the teenager’s 16th birthday belatedly, with his mother Muna serving his favourite meal.
“No mother, father, parent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, or child should ever have to go through what Mohammed just went through,” Kadur wrote.
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Watch: Deadly fire engulfs Hong Kong apartment blocks
Firefighters are still searching for hundreds of missing people after a massive fire tore through multiple high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong.
At least 65 people died in the blaze – the city’s deadliest in more than 70 years – at Wang Fuk Court’s complex, which is home to thousands.
The tower blocks had been undergoing extensive renovations – and while the exact cause for the fire is unclear, police say materials on the outside of the buildings may have facilitated its spread.
Three construction company executives have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and gross negligence, and Hong Kong’s chief executive John Lee has vowed to launch a comprehensive investigation.
The fire, which tore through seven of eight tower blocks in Tai Po district on Wednesday, is now “basically under control”, Lee said.
It started at 14:51 local time (06:51 GMT) on Wednesday, with flames and thick clouds of grey smoke seen billowing from the towers, dominating the city’s skyline.
By 18:22 local time, officials upgraded the fire to a level five – the most serious category.
Firefighter Ho Wai-ho, 37, was among those killed in the blaze. He was found collapsed at the scene about 30 minutes after contact with him was lost.
Ten other firefighters are also injured, the fire department said.
The fierce heat of the blaze, as well as dangerous debris and the risk posed from collapsing scaffolding, has hampered rescue efforts, but the fire department has so far rescued 55 people.
“Despite the complex conditions at the scene, the firefighters’ rescue efforts will not stop,” Lee told a news conference on Thursday evening.
More than 270 people remain unaccounted for, while 70 people are injured.
As firefighters bring the blaze under control, the extent of the damage is yet to be assessed
Thick smoke billowed into the sky as bystanders watched on
The mood in Hong Kong has shifted from shock to anguish, as questions grow regarding who should be held accountable for the blaze.
Anger has been building on social media, especially after several residents revealed in interviews that they did not hear a fire alarm when the fire broke out.
Kiko Ma, 33, who has an apartment in the housing complex, told the BBC that some of the fire alarms had been turned off during the renovation, as construction workers regularly used fire escapes to enter and exit the buildings.
Reports of their complaints last year over renovation plans have also resurfaced, and are circulating widely online. Residents had taken issue with high renovation fees and questioned whether the materials used complied with fire-safety regulations.
Mesh material and plastic sheets which were found on the outside of the buildings are not believed to be fireproof, while polystyrene was also found on the buildings’ windows.
These materials may have allowed the fire to spread faster, police said.
“We have reason to believe that those in charge at the company were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” a police spokesperson said.
Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption has said it will launch a criminal investigation over the renovation works.
Fire safety expert Prof Jiang Liming, from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said he believed the bamboo scaffolding connecting the apartment blocks may have also helped the fire grow.
Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight across Hong Kong – a city known for its high-rise buildings – and is widely used in construction.
Lee said he had arranged inspections of “all housing estates undergoing major repairs” to check the “safety of scaffolding and building materials”.
He added that the government was considering a review of bamboo scaffolding and whether they should be replaced by metal frameworks.
Wang Fuk Court in Hong Kong’s northerly suburban Tai Po district was built in 1983 and consists of eight tower blocks providing 1,984 apartments for around 4,600 residents, according to a 2021 government census.
Nearly 40% of its residents are estimated to be at least 65 years old. Some have lived in the subsidised housing estate since it was built.
China’s President Xi Jinping has expressed sympathy for the victims and urged that every effort be made to put out the fire and minimise the losses, state media reported.
Hong Kong’s deadliest fire on record killed 176 people in 1948 and was caused by a ground-floor explosion at a five-storey warehouse.
A group of military officers had claimed ‘total control’ of the country, a day after two leading candidates in a tightly contested presidential election each declared victory.
Published On 27 Nov 202527 Nov 2025
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The military in Guinea-Bissau has appointed a general as the country’s new leader for one year, a day after staging a coup to seize power and arresting the president of the West African nation as contentious election results were imminent.
“I have just been sworn in to lead the High Command,” General Horta Nta Na Man declared after taking the oath of office in a ceremony at the military’s headquarters on Thursday, AFP journalists observed.
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Dozens of heavily armed soldiers were deployed at the scene.
On Wednesday, a day after two leading candidates in a tightly contested presidential election each declared victory, a group of military officers claimed “total control” of the country.
Calling themselves the “High Military Command for the Restoration of Order”, the officers read out a statement on television, declaring that they had ordered the immediate suspension of the electoral process “until further notice”.
They ousted President Umaro Sissoco Embalo in the latest episode of unrest in the coup-prone country.
Provisional results were expected to be announced in the race between Embalo and Fernando Dias, a political newcomer who had emerged as the top challenger to the incumbent to run the country, which is a hub for cocaine trafficking.
The capital, Bissau, was mostly quiet on Thursday, with soldiers patrolling the streets and many residents staying indoors even after the overnight curfew was lifted. Businesses and banks were closed.
The military had also ordered the closure of all land, air and sea borders.
The takeover announcment came shortly after sustained gunfire was heard near the election commission’s headquarters, the presidential palace and the Ministry of the Interior in the capital, Bissau on Wednesday.
“I have been deposed,” Embalo told French broadcaster France24 in a phone call on Wednesday, adding that he was “currently at the general staff headquarters”.
Reporting from neighbouring Senegal that afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque reported that Embalo was under arrest.
The head of the main opposition PAIGC party, Domingos Simoes Pereira, has also been arrested, Haque said. “As well, we’ve just heard that the military is trying to cut off the Internet. There’s a curfew in place.”
He added that the army officer leading the coup, Denis N’Canha, served as the head of the presidential guard. “The man supposed to protect the president himself has put the president under arrest,” Haque said.
Meanwhile, West Africa’s ECOWAS and African Union observers expressed concern over the military takeover in Guinea-Bissau, according to a joint statement issued by the organisations.
“It’s regrettable that this [coup] announcement came at a time when the missions had just concluded meeting with the two leading presidential candidates, who assured us of their willingness to accept the will of the people,” the observers said on Wednesday.
It’s the start of Thanksgiving week, the time when home cooks across America suddenly recognize the daunting task ahead.
More than 90% of people in the U.S. celebrate the food-centric holiday and more than 1 in 4 attend meals that include more than 10 other people, according to the Pew Research Center.
Under that kind of pressure, what host wouldn’t want the best tools to make sure the holiday dinner goes off without a hitch?
With that in mind, we asked national food safety experts which kitchen devices and aids are essential to ensure a safe and tasty Thanksgiving meal.
Here are their top four suggestions for aids that can make or break your holiday dinner, plus two bonus tips for after the meal:
Digital meat thermometer
Our panel of experts unanimously agreed that an instant-read digital thermometer is vital to making sure roast turkey and other dishes reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit (74 degrees Celsius) to eliminate the risk of food poisoning from germs like salmonella and Campylobacter.
“This is non-negotiable,” said Darin Detwiler, a Northeastern University food safety expert. “A reliable thermometer ensures you’re not guessing, because guessing is not a food safety strategy.”
Color-coded cutting boards
In the hustle of a holiday kitchen, the risk of cross-contamination is real. That’s when germs from one food, such as raw turkey, may be spread to other foods, such as fresh vegetables or fruits.
It’s best to use dedicated cutting boards for each type of food, and color-coding — red for meat, yellow for poultry, green for veggies — can help, said Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University.
“I try not to use wooden cutting boards,” said Kowalcyk, noting that they can retain bacteria that thrive and grow to large enough quantities to cause illness.
As an emergency medicine doctor who has stitched up many Thanksgiving injuries, Dr. Tony Cirillo urges home cooks to make sure their kitchen knives are sharp.
A sharp knife cuts cleanly, while a dull knife requires more pressure that can cause dangerous slips, said Cirillo, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Sturdy roasting pans
Pulling a hot turkey out of the oven is tricky, especially if the pan you cook it in is flimsy, Cirillo added. Use a sturdy metal roasting pan or, in a pinch, stack two foil roasting pans together for strength.
“I’m a big fan of double-panning,” Cirillo said. “Dropping the turkey is generally not good on Thanksgiving.”
Cooking timer
Just as important as getting food to the table is making sure it doesn’t sit out too long, said Don Schaffner, a food safety expert at Rutgers University.
Use a cooking timer or clock alarm to make sure to pack away leftovers within two hours to prevent bacterial growth that can cause illness.
Ruler
And when you’re storing those leftovers, make sure to put them in shallow containers, Schaffner said.
Measure using a ruler — or even the short side of a credit card — to make sure that dense foods like stuffing and sweet potatoes reach a depth of no more than 2 inches (5 centimeters) to allow for quick and complete cooling in the refrigerator.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
