Safe Fourth

Safe Fourth

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
The 4th of July, a time when more Americans cookout and have picnics than any other day, and it's also when more people report getting sick from some sort of food related illness than any other day. Food safety experts say the things some of us do at cookouts and picnics are almost criminal. Let's read off some possible picnic cookout criminal charges. First, it's really bad when trying to save time by partially cooking the meat the day before and just heating it up at the cookout the next day.

Janell Goodwin, with USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline, 1-888-MP HOTLINE: "When you partially cook a product, you're taking it out of the refrigerator, which is a safe temperature. You're bringing it up to a warm temperature. Not quite done yet."

Not quite hot enough to kill any bacteria that may be in or on it. Then you put that nice warm meat back in the fridge. Bacteria are possibly still multiplying in the meat, and it takes a long time for the temperature to drop back down to below 40 degrees, which stops the bacteria from growing. Yes, but then later, when you finish cooking it, it may not get hot enough to kill the bacteria and you've put your diners in jeopardy. But let's say you're innocent of that partial cooking charge. But you could be cited for failure to use a food thermometer to ensure killing all bacteria that may be in or on that meat.

That's the only way to tell when a meat product is dying. And once it reaches a safe temperature, for example, burgers, you weren't allowed to reach 160 degrees. Once it reaches that, then it's dying and you can pull it off in the grill.

Next charge is as bad as it sounds. Cross contamination carelessly packing raw meat products in the cooler, such that the juices that may have bacteria can leak on to ready to eat foods like salads or carrying raw meat out to the grill on a platter and using that same unwashed platter to carry the cooked meat out to the guests. And of course, if there was bacteria on the raw meat, that bacteria just go right back when the meat product.

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