Eating Out It’s summer, when “eating out” takes on a whole new meaning. Whether you are grilling steaks in the backyard, preparing for a picnic at the local park, or packing up for a weekend of camping, food safety matters. Here are some tips to keep you safe as you “eat out” this summer.

The Right Temp One of the most basic principles of food safety is to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. But what does this really involve? It starts with the trip home from the store. The US Food Safety and Inspection Service recommends purchasing refrigerated foods like meat, poultry and eggs last, and taking them right home to the refrigerator. If the outside temp is under 90°, you have two hours from purchase to refrigerator for perishable foods; if over 90°, that window of time narrows to 1 hour. If you won’t be using poultry or ground meat within one to two days, freeze it. Other meats should be frozen if you won’t use them within four to five days. If you need to transport uncooked meat to a picnic or on a camping trip, pack it in a cooler where the temperature can be kept below 40°. Packing frozen packages of meat will keep it cool longer, as well as helping to keep other foods in the cooler cool. Keep the cooler in a cool spot (in the air conditioned part of your car or in the shade at your destination), and try not to open it repeatedly. When using previously frozen meat or poultry, make sure it is completely thawed, either in the refrigerator or cooler, or for last minute grilling, in the microwave. Once grilled, meat or poultry should be used within two hours (one hour if it is over 90° out). When grilling meat or poultry, make sure you are grilling it to the proper temperature. A chart listing the safe temperatures can be found at here. A food thermometer is one of the most useful kitchen gadgets you can own! Salads and other cold side dishes should only be taken out of the cooler long enough to serve them, then returned to the cooler. Food kept for any length of time at temperatures between 40° and 140° is at high risk of spoilage.

Avoiding Cross Contamination Cross contamination is when bacteria from raw meat, poultry, or eggs comes in contact with other foods and begins to grow there, making them unsafe. The keys to avoiding cross contamination are cleanliness and separation. Always wash your hands before handling foods, and between handling raw meats and other foods. Make sure you also thoroughly wash your meat thermometer, as well as any utensils used for cooking meat. Keep plenty of clean utensils and plates on hand, and never put cooked meat on the same platter the raw meat came off, unless it has been thoroughly washed first. Wrap meats and poultry or put them in an extra plastic bag at the grocery store to avoid contaminating other foods in the cart. Also, don’t allow cooked or ready-to-eat foods to touch raw meats. Never use the same utensils on raw and cooked foods.

Eating Out Safely The above hints should help you to safely cook out, but what about those occasions when somebody else does the cooking? At amusement parks or on boardwalks, for example, look for clean facilities where hot foods are served hot and cold foods cold. For more information on food safety issues, visit the Food Safety and Inspection Service. Have a safe summer! See our corresponding article on Summer Fun here.

~Written by Host Dini and Host Dorean.