When cooking and serving meals outdoors, remember to make food safety part of your planning. Keep these two guidelines in mind:
- Don’t Cross Contaminate
- When marinating food for grilling, refrigerate during the marinade process.
- Keep your raw fish, meat, and poultry away from any cooked or ready-to-eat foods.
- Have a clean plate to carry food to and from the grill.
- Wash and sanitize all surfaces and utensils after they have been in contact with raw fish, meat, or poultry.
- Be sure to have an extra clean utensil to remove cooked food from the grill.
2. Use a Food Thermometer
Experienced cooks may think they know when food is done just by looking at it, but this may not be the case. Burgers can turn brown before they are fully cooked. Germs that cause foodborne illness are not killed until a safe internal temperature is reached. This is where a food thermometer comes in. Using a food thermometer is the only way to know your food is done and safe to eat.
Use a thermometer to test for doneness:
- Fish—145°F
- Steaks, chops—145°F
- Ground meat—160°F
- Poultry—165°F