The Co-op Food Stores

added 02/06/08

by Mary Saucier Choate, M.S., R.D., L.D.

A little summer food safety goes a long way. Ah, the lazy, hazy, good old days of summertime cookouts: cold summer salads, fresh cut fruit, and that beautifully grilled piece of meat, poultry, or seafood. To make sure that you and your guests can enjoy it all, take the time to review your food safety savvy. Because, unfortunately, these days we need to consider some deadly food-borne bacteria that folks in the old days never had to worry about.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, only five organisms were known to cause food-borne illness 50 years ago. Today, we recognize about 25 food-borne pathogens, including 20 newly discovered ones. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that as many as 4,000 deaths and 5 million illnesses per year are caused by four major food contaminants: Salmonella, Campylobacter, E. coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes.

In the last 15 years, researchers have implicated food-borne bacteria in several important diseases of previously unknown cause. For example, we now know that infection with Campylobacter can result in the autoimmune disease known as Guillain-Barre Syndrome and that the most common cause of acute kidney failure in children—hemolytic uremic syndrome—is E. coli O157:H7 or related bacteria.

How Did This Happen?

Several possible reasons exist for the presence and discovery of new food-borne pathogens. Dangerous new microbes evolve or mutate from harmless ones. Better laboratory tests identify previously unrecognized pathogens. Poor sanitation practices contaminate food with dangerous bacteria and viruses, while demand for exotic and out-of-season items encourages worldwide distribution of microbes once confined to a single area.

Unfortunately, new food-borne pathogens can mean that home food-handling and storage methods once considered safe may not be safe now.

Eat Well and Safely

Summer is the time to be outside enjoying warm weather, barbecuing, and picnicking. No one wants to be stuck inside with diarrhea, vomiting, muscle aches, or worse, but these days, that is where being careless with food safety can lead.

Follow these helpful tips to keep your summer foods safe to eat.

Start at the Grocery Store

Select foods like meat, poultry, and seafood last, right before you go to the checkout. To guard against raw juices dripping on other food, be sure the meat and seafood clerks place raw meat, poultry, and seafood into plastic bags.

Refrigerate all perishable foods within two hours. Get them into the refrigerator within one hour when the temperature is above 90 °F. Bringing a cooler with ice packs for perishable foods can help to keep foods safe during the trip home. Once you’re home, put meat, poultry, and seafood directly into the refrigerator. Freeze seafood, poultry, and ground meat that won’t be used in one or two days; freeze other meat within four to five days.

When you are ready to defrost frozen foods before grilling, use the refrigerator for safe thawing or thaw sealed packages in cold water. For quicker defrosting, use the microwave if the food will be placed on the grill right away.

Meat and poultry can be safely marinated in the refrigerator for several hours or days to tenderize or add flavor. If some of the marinade is to be used as a sauce on the cooked food, reserve a portion of the marinade and keep it separate from the raw meat or poultry. If you must reuse the marinade from raw meat, poultry, or seafood on cooked food, boil the marinade first to destroy any harmful bacteria.

Chill out!

Always keep perishable foods, including meat and poultry, at 40°F or below until ready to use or cook. For holding outdoors, use an insulated cooler with lots of ice or ice packs . Pack food directly from the refrigerator into the cooler, then keep the cooler out of direct sunlight. If possible, store beverages and perishables in separate coolers to minimize warming the perishable foods while keeping the beverages handy.

The Clean Routine

Check ahead of time to see if your picnic site or campground has safe water for drinking and cleaning. If not, bring water from home, along with clean cloths and detergent for cleaning surfaces and premoistened towelettes or waterless liquid sanitizer for hands.

Wash your hands before and after handling foods. Use a clean platter and utensils for cooked foods; never reuse the ones that held raw meat, poultry or fish. Harmful bacteria present in these raw foods and their juices can contaminate safely cooked food.

Tempting Temperatures

Food cooked on the grill may brown quickly on the outside before reaching a safe, bacteria-killing temperature on the inside. Using an instant-read thermometer assures that the food has reached a safe internal temperature. Always insert the thermometer into the thickest part of the meat or seafood. For thin items such as hamburgers or boneless chicken breasts, insert the stem of the thermometer sideways, horizontal to the surface, to ensure that as much of the stem as possible is inside the meat. The Co-op also carries “T-sticks” for specific foods. These are single-use indicators that your cooked food has reached the proper internal temperature.

Cook whole poultry to 180°F; breasts to 170°F. Hamburgers made of ground beef should reach 160°F; ground poultry, 165°F. Beef, veal, and lamb steaks, roasts, and chops can be cooked to a minimum of 145°F. All cuts of pork should reach 160°F. Fully cooked meats like hot dogs, should be grilled to 165°F or until steaming hot.

What do these foods look like when they are cooked to their safe temperature? They have a T-stick or meat thermometer sticking out of them with the correct temperature displayed.

Keep Hot Food Hot and Cold Food Cold

After cooking meat and poultry on the grill, keep grilled foods hot (140°F or warmer) until served by setting them to the side of the grill rack. At home, cooked meat can be kept hot in a warm oven (approximately 200°F), in a chafing dish or slow cooker, or on a warming tray.

Party’s Over

Discard any perishable food left out at room temperature for more than two hours. If temperatures are above 90ºF, discard leftovers after one hour. All other foods should be refrigerated promptly in shallow containers. Reheat all leftovers until they are steaming hot.