By Alison Crane
Summer is here and with it picnic season, a time to enjoy favorite summer dishes in the great outdoors. When you are relaxing with family and friends, it is easy to get caught up in the fun and accidentally forget food safety best practices.
Did you know food-borne illness symptoms range from mild to severe and can even cause death? The very young and older adults along with those with compromised immune symptoms are the most vulnerable to severe or life-threatening complications from food-borne illness.
One small error can sicken your whole crew, making you an unpopular host! Reduce the odds of foodborne illness by avoiding common picnic food slip-ups.
- Wash your hands before cooking, after handling raw meat, and before eating or serving food. Bring hand sanitizer if there is no running water at your picnic site, and rub it all over your hands, including between fingers and around nails.
- If you’re not careful, juices from raw meat and poultry can drip into your cooler, creating a breeding ground for bacteria to grow. Sanitize your cooler, and wash reusable bags you’ll use to transport food. Pack food in tightly sealed containers.
- Pack your cooler about three-quarters of the way full of food, reserving one-quarter of the space for ice packs or loose ice. If possible, chill or freeze foods before packing them in your cooler. Pack cold and hot food separately.
- If you won’t be able to wash plates, tongs, and serving utensils at the picnic site, bring two sets: one for handling raw meats and one for serving cooked foods. Keep ready-to-eat foods away from anything that touches raw meats, poultry, or fish, and don’t reuse marinades used on raw foods.
- Pack ice for beverages in a separate sealed bag. Loose ice-covering foods could have picked up odorless, invisible bacteria from items in the cooler.
- Pack food in a well-insulated cooler with plenty of ice or ice packs to keep the temperature below 40°F. Transport the cooler in the back seat of your air-conditioned car instead of in your hot trunk. Remove from the cooler only the amount of raw meat that will fit on the grill.
- Don’t let food sit out for more than two hours. If the temperature outside is 90°F or above, food should only sit out for an hour at most.
Keeping food safe keeps you and others safe! You can learn more about cookout food safety or suggestions for how to make your picnic food healthy and tasty through the Garland County Extension Service. Call 501-623-6841 or email acrane@uada.edu. Follow us on Facebook @GarlandCountyExtension-UADA.
Alison Crane is a Family and Consumer Sciences Agent with the Garland County Extension Service. The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs to all eligible persons without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status, and is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.
