Celebrate Safely!

The day is here when everyone will be situated in a back yard or a park, proudly watching over a grill full of his or her favorite summer foods. Everyone is relaxed, the children can run wild and spill soda pop to their hearts’ content while the adults sip cool drinks, chat, and most importantly, tend to the barbeque. Open flames, bacteria-breeding warm weather, and outdoor dining can present a host of hazards to the unwary picnicker, but we know you’ve been looking forward to summer since last winter began, so we have a few pointers for you to help make your outdoor occasion a subject of good times and happy memories by keeping it safe!

Plan Ahead for a Perfect Party

You can save yourself some heartbreak, or at least some inconvenience, by planning ahead for a few things you'll need to have on hand to make your cookout a breeze. Start by setting up a small table next to the barbeque so that you'll have a place to put plates, hot pads, food, utensils, and an icy beverage for yourself. This avoids disasters like stepping on the plate full of juicy grilled burgers that you set on the ground for just a minute while you jostled with the hamburger buns, and it saves you from having to run inside for a clean plate while your shish kebabs go from beautifully seared to carbonized. In addition, make sure you have long-handled utensils (spatula, tongs, fork) for the barbeque to avoid splatters and burns. You can also avoid the disasters brought on by floppy paper plates by investing in some inexpensive, reusable wicker or plastic plate-holders, or, just spend a little extra money for really sturdy paper plates.

Your meal should go off without a hitch if you make sure that everything else is ready before you put the food on the grill. It's better to put someone else in charge of setting the table, getting the side dishes ready, herding the children, pouring the drinks, etcetera, so you have nothing to concentrate on besides making perfectly grilled food. Grills are hot, and the temperature is difficult to control with much accuracy, so the best way to ensure flawless food is to tend to it constantly.

Beastly Bacteria

Bacteria thrives and multiplies in food between the temperatures of 40 degrees F and 140 degrees F (4 degrees C to 60 degrees C), so make sure to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold, and never leave perishable foods out for longer than two hours (this includes preparation time). Also remember that ready-to-eat foods should never be placed on a plate that held raw meat.

The foods that are most prone to cause illness if left unrefrigerated are: raw and cooked meat, poultry, and fish; salads made from starchy ingredients such as pasta, potatoes, and grains; anything containing raw or cooked eggs such as homemade mayonnaise, cream pies, and anything else containing dairy products. If you're serving appetizers and munchies that will likely be sitting out for a while, stick to foods that don't need refrigeration, such as veggie platters, fruit skewers, breads, and chips. If serving sour cream or mayonnaise-based dips, be sure to keep the bowl on a bed of ice and avoid direct sunlight if at all possible. If cooking at the park or some other remote location, bring a cooler full of ice and keep all spoil-able foods cold until they are ready to be cooked or eaten. If possible, use two separate coolers-one for drinks and snacks, which people will be dipping into frequently, and a second one for meat and other dishes that will not be needed until it's time to sit down for the meal.