Labor Day Food Safety: Staying Healthy During Summer Cookouts

Food poisoning. No one wants to hear those words, let alone suffer through it, or witness a family member endure the ill effects. As we head into Labor Day weekend, don’t let warm weather negatively impact your food safety and put a damper on your outdoor activities.

Labor day is quickly approaching, which means cookouts, camping, tailgating, and enjoying the great outdoors, often inclusive of food consumption. Food poisoning not only causes severe discomfort, inconvenience, and stomach trauma, it also accounts for 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths annually in the United States – and cases hit record highs as the weather warms up. Normally, the immune system is strong enough to fight off the bacteria within a week, however, the very young and elderly may face greater challenges. For most people with an active schedule, who has a week of downtime available to recover or care for a loved one?

A better approach: Prevent foodborne illness altogether. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there are a number of very simple steps that we need to remember to do.

A constant reminder to take the following precautions can save a lot of discomfort and worry. Be sure to:

1. Wash your hands before eating and after handling uncooked meat.
2. Test your meat before you eat (meat should be cooked until the internal temperature is 160°F or hotter).
3. Keep hot foods hot, and cold foods cold.
4. Never let perishables – including grandma’s favorite macaroni salad – sit at room temperature for more than two hours.

Following four simple steps at home – Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill – can help protect you and your loved ones from food poisoning.

Clean: Wash Your Hands and Surfaces Often

• Germs that cause food poisoning can survive in a number of places and can easily spread throughout your kitchen.
• Wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water before, during, and after preparing food, as well as before eating.
• Wash your utensils, cutting boards, and countertops with hot, soapy water.
• Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables under running water.

Separate: Don’t Cross-Contaminate

• Raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs can spread germs to ready-to-eat foods – unless you keep them separate.
• Use separate cutting boards and plates for raw meat, poultry, and seafood.
• When grocery shopping, keep raw meat, poultry, seafood, and their juices away from other foods (many retailers offer separate plastic bags at the point of selection).
• Keep raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs separate from all other foods in the fridge.

Cook: Heat Food to the Right Temperature

Food is safely cooked when the internal temperature gets high enough to kill germs that carry disease. The only way to tell if food is safely cooked is to use a food thermometer. You can’t accurately tell if food is safely cooked by checking its color and texture.

Use a food thermometer to ensure foods are cooked to a safe internal temperature. 

Bacteria can multiply rapidly if left at room temperature or in the “Danger Zone” between 40°F and 140°F. Never leave perishable food out for more than 2 hours.

Chill: Refrigerate Promptly

Keep your refrigerator below 40°F and know when it’s time to throw out food. Refrigerate perishable food within 2 hours (if the temperature outside is above 90°F, refrigerate within 1 hour). Thaw frozen food safely in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave. Never thaw foods on the counter, because bacteria multiply quickly in the parts of the food that reach room temperature.

When bringing food to a picnic or cookout:

• Use an insulated cooler filled with ice or frozen gel packs. Frozen food can also be used as a cold source.
• Foods that need to be kept cold include raw meat, poultry, and seafood; deli and luncheon meats or sandwiches; summer salads (tuna, chicken, egg, pasta, or seafood); cut-up fruit and vegetables; and perishable dairy products.
• A full cooler will maintain its cold temperature longer than a partially filled one. When using a cooler, keep it out of the direct sun by placing it in the shade.
• Avoid opening the cooler repeatedly so that your food stays cold longer.

According to Dr. Darin Detwiler, Professor at Northeastern University, expert on Food Safety, and Recipient of the International Association of Food Safety 2018 Distinguished Professional Award, ‘the further away from a controlled environment that anyone gets, the greater the risk for foodborne illness from bacteria caused by temperature deviation’.

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