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Kickoff Your Tailgate Party with Food Safety
Football season is here! That means parties with friends and family as you cheer on your favorite team. When cooking in stadium parking lots, it's important to follow food safety guidelines to prevent being sidelined by foodborne illness. Let's huddle up and put together a food safety game plan for a winning tailgating season.
An Insulated Cooler is the Best Defense
When transporting perishable items to the tailgating site, pack food right from the refrigerator into a cooler or insulated bag. Include sufficient ice or cold sources, such as ice packs or frozen water bottles, to keep the food at 40 degrees F or below. Place an appliance thermometer in the cooler so you can check that the food stays at that temperature.
Play Zone Defense: No Cross-Contamination
Don't use the same platter and utensils that hold raw meat and poultry to serve cooked foods. Any bacteria present in the raw products or their juices can contaminate the safely cooked foods. Serve cooked foods on clean plates using clean utensils.
Blitz Bacteria with a Food Thermometer
Meat and poultry cooked on a grill often brown very fast on the outside, making it look done before it actually is. Cook food to a safe minimum internal temperature, as measured with a food thermometer.
- Beef, pork, veal, and lamb (steaks, roasts, and chops): 145 degrees F and allow for a 3-minute rest time.
- Hamburgers made of ground beef, pork, veal, and lamb: 160 degrees F.
- All poultry (including ground): 165 degrees F.
When measuring the temperature of thin foods, such as hamburger patties, insert the probe through the side of the food until it reaches the center.
No Foods Warming the Bench
Leaving food out too long at room temperature can cause bacteria to grow to dangerous levels and take everyone out of the game with foodborne illness. Bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperature between 40 degrees F and 140 degrees F, doubling in number in as little as 20 minutes. This range of temperatures is called the Danger Zone.
Never leave food out of refrigeration over 2 hours. If the temperature is above 90 degrees F where foods are being served, the food should not be left out for more than 1 hour.
- Keep cold food cold at or below 40 degrees F. Nestle containers of food in ice or keep them in the cooler until ready to serce. Serve small portions and change out frequently.
- Keep hot food hot at or above 140 degrees F. Place cooked food in chafing dishes, preheated steam tables, or warming trays. Slow cookers can be an option, too, if you have access to a power source. If you are grilling, meats can be kept hot on a warm grill.
What to do before and after a weather emergency
In 2023, the U.S. set a record for natural disasters with 28 weather and climate emergencies that cost $92.9 billion in damages, according the Climate.gov. Winter storms, wildfires, heatwaves, flooding, tornados, and hurricanes can bring immediate damage to a community, but the lingering effects include foodborne illness.
Food that has been exposed to fire, flood water, or a power outage for too long can contain harmful bacteria that make you sick.
Knowing how to keep food safe and how to determine if food is safe will help minimize the potential loss of food and reduce the risk of foodborne illness after weather emergencies and power outages.
Power Outages
- Before: Fill empty spaces in your freezer with frozen plastic jugs of water, bags of ice, or gel packs. Also, freeze items that you don't need right away.
- During: Keep your refrigerator and freezer doors closed. A refrigerator will keep food safely cold for 4 hours after power loss if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold a safe temperature for 48 hours, and a half full freezer for 24 hours if it is unopened.
- After: If the power is off longer, you can transfer food to a cooler and fill with ice or frozen gel packs. Make sure there is enough ice to keep food in the cooler at 40 degrees F or below. Add more ice to the cooler as it begins to melt. Discard any perishable food after the safe timeframes if you are unable to transfer to a cooler.
Floods
- Before: If possible, raise refrigerators and freezers off the floor by placing cement blocks underneath them. Move canned goods and other shelf-stable foods to a higher area.
- After: Do not eat any food or drink bottled water that came in contact with flood water. Discared any food taht is not in a waterproof container (those with screw caps, snap lids, pull tops, and crimped caps). Discard any cardboard juice/milk/baby formula boxes and home-canned foods that came in contact with flood water because they cannot be effectively cleaned and sanitzed. Undamaged, commerically prepared food in all-metal cans and retort pouches can be saved if you remove the labels, thoroughly wash packaging with soap and water, and sanitize them.
Fire
- Before: If you have an emergency kit, pack nonperishable snacks to sustain you for a couple of days. These items include canned meats, beef jerky, protein or fruit bars, dry cereal, dried fruit, and peanut butter.
- After: Discared all food that has been near a fire. Food exposed to fire can be damaged by the heat of the fire, smoke fumes, and fire-fighting chemicals. Sanitize cookward exposed to fire-fighting chemicals by washing in soap and hot water then submerging for 15 minutes in a solution containing one tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of drinking water.