Partnership for Food Safety Education

FightBAC!

Hot Off the Grill: Home Grilling Safety Tips

Families are doing more grilling this year. Nielsen reported that fresh meat alternative sales increased 255% in the last week of March (compared to the same week in 2019), fully outpacing the growth of meat sales, which increased 53% over the same period.

Fight BAC! is here to help you out with a few essential tips on handling meat safely, and how grilling safely at home can keep you and your family healthy.

Clean hands & surfaces

Washing your hands and surfaces the correct way will help reduce the risk of harmful germs:

  • Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling food.
  • Wash your cutting boards, dishes, utensils, and counter tops with hot soapy water after preparing each food item and before you go on to the next food.
  • Do not rinse raw meat or poultry before cooking it. This is not a safety step, and it could spread dangerous germs around your kitchen.


Thawing meat

woman and daughter washing at kitchen sinkYou may be buying more meats in bulk right now and freezing for later use. Make sure to thaw meats properly:

  • Never let raw meat, poultry, eggs, cooked food or cut fresh fruits or vegetables sit at room temperature more than two hours before putting them in the refrigerator or freezer (one hour when the temperature is above 90°F).
  • Never thaw food at room temperature. Food must be kept at a safe temperature during thawing.
  • There are three safe ways to defrost food: in the refrigerator, in cold water, and in the microwave. Food thawed in cold water or in the microwave should be cooked immediately

Marinades

Everyone loves a good marinade! Make sure to safely marinate and store your meat:

  • Always marinate foods in the refrigerator, not on the counter or outdoors.
  • Don’t use sauce that was used to marinate raw meat or poultry on cooked food.
  • Reserve a portion of the unused marinade to use as a sauce.

Grilling temps

meat thermometer checking grilled meatWhen it’s time to grill the food, cook it to a safe internal temperature for safety and quality. Use a food thermometer to be sure! 

  • Beef, pork, veal and lamb (roast, steaks and chops): 145 °F with a three-minute “rest time” after removal from the heat source
  • Ground meats: 160 °F
  • Poultry (whole, parts or ground): 165 °F
  • Eggs and egg dishes: 160 °F, but cook eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm; scrambled eggs should not be runny
  • Fin fish: 145 °F
  • Shrimp, lobster and crabs: flesh pearly and opaque
  • Clams, oysters and mussels: shells open during cooking
  • Scallops: milky white, opaque and firm
Download the Safe Minimal Internal Temperatures Chart

Avoid cross-contamination

chicken and produce kept separate on counterCross-contamination is how harmful bacteria can be spread. Improper handling of raw meat, poultry or seafood can create an inviting environment for cross-contamination:

  • Never place cooked food on a plate that previously held raw meat, poultry or seafood.
  • Use one cutting board for fresh produce and a separate one for raw meat, poultry and seafood.
  • Be sure to have plenty of clean utensils and platters on hand.

Leftovers

After the meal, remember to handle leftovers safely to prevent foodborne illness:

  • Plan on enough storage space in the refrigerator and freezer. In the refrigerator, air needs to circulate to keep the temperature at 40 °F or below. Use an appliance thermometer in your refrigerator to monitor the temperature.
  • Divide large amounts of leftovers into shallow containers for quicker cooling in the refrigerator.
  • Leftovers stored in the refrigerator should be consumed within 3-4 days
  • Reheat leftovers to 165 °F before eating.

woman washing vegetables in kitchenTo help you Fight BAC!® (harmful bacteria) this grilling season, we’ve collected five grilling recipes with built-in food safety and hand hygiene steps.

Check out food safety videos on grilling and safe food preparation on the Food Safety YouTube channel.

Have a happy and safe grilling season!

Shawnte Loeri is the Communications Associate with the Partnership for Food Safety Education. She can be reached at sloeri@fightbac.org.

Lisa’s Table Is All About Safe Dinners

Meet Lisa

Lisa Treiber is a dedicated BAC Fighter who is passionate about keeping her community safe. She is an Extension Agent at Michigan State University, and she regularly uses Fight BAC! resources in her curriculum.

Lisa values raising awareness around safe food handling practices. Throughout the semester she teaches courses that remind students how to stay healthy. She also shares The Story of Your Dinner resources — particularly around the holiday season. She has done this for many years and has noticed that her community responds positively to it.

Lisa’s Table Spreads Awareness for the Holidays

This past holiday season, Lisa dedicated a table to food safety in the atrium of the Midland County Building Department. She enlarged food safety tips from The Story of Your Dinner and made them into laminated tiles. The tiles were arranged to be easily read by anyone who passes through the building. Lisa is thankful for the clear messages on each tile like “Suds up for 20 seconds” and “Keep your refrigerator at 40 °F or below.”

Lisa went a step further and printed off recipes with food safety steps and left them on the table. She worked hard to emphasize the importance of food safety during the holiday season, and it was well received by her peers and community. She was pleasantly surprised to see over 50 recipes had been taken from the table by the diverse population that walks through the building.

Years of Community Engagement at the Table

This isn’t the first year Lisa has created a table display. A couple years ago, she increased community engagement by holding a drawing for those who stopped at the table. Over 75 people entered, and the winner received a fridge thermometer to ensure their fridge was at a food-safe temperature. The county health department sanitarian workers who approved the display said that it was “wonderful.”

Lisa feels that with the number of those who have responded each year, she is getting her message across and doing her part in spreading awareness to her community. She appreciates that the resources from the Partnership for Food Safety Education are diverse and can be easily tweaked to be used throughout the entire year.

Lisa Treiber is an Extension Agent at Michigan State University. She can be reached at treiber@msu.edu.

You can make sure families have the safe food handling information that they need to reduce their risk of food poisoning with a personal contribution today. Click here to make a gift.

An Interview with BAC: How Much He Loves Super Bowl Parties

BAC® sat down with Shelley Feist, Executive Director of the Partnership for Food Safety Education, to talk about his idea of “Super Bowl fun”.

Q: BAC, lots of people are getting together over food to watch the Super Bowl. What do you love most about Super Bowl parties?
A: I love that there is so much chaos in the kitchen that
day — I love it! After all, if you are distracted and you have 10 friends each bringing a food dish to a party, that creates some real opportunities for me. I also love that the game lasts a long time — usually 3 ½ hours. That’s great too!

Q: What do you mean?
A: Well, first of all, if you have 10 friends bringing 10 dishes, do you think each one of them was careful in washing their hands with soap and water before preparing that food? No! Or that those platters of deli meats and veggies have been kept at 40 °F for the past few hours? No way! The more food, the more chaos… the better for me! These situations create a real opportunity for me.

Q: Opportunity?
A: Put it this way, if you are going to skip washing your hands before you handle food, I am going to be there. And I’ll be ready to jump off your hands to every food item you touch. I also love a nice, warm room temperature and plenty of time to sit around on your food. I take advantage of these opportunities. I show up and multiply!

Q: You don’t sound like a very good Super Bowl party guest. Why would anyone invite you?
A: What? I show up uninvited all the time! And it’s easy to do. You can’t believe how many people provide the perfect conditions for me to show up and to multiply! I had the greatest time at Thanksgiving when the Smith family didn’t use a food thermometer, and they only cooked their stuffing to 130 °F! That was great!

Q: Images on the web show you as green and kind of creepy. But sitting here with you, you don’t appear that way at all. Why don’t you tell the readers what you look like?
A: I’m illustrated as short, green and aggressive. In reality I’m invisible — you can’t even see me. But yeah, I’m aggressive. When I’m out at room temperature, you can be sure I’ll be aggressive and start showing up all over in your food. That’s what I’m all about. Food laid out on a table for a Super Bowl party

BAC® is aggressive, loves to multiply at room temperature, and is ready to show up uninvited to your Super Bowl party! To learn how to keep BAC® out of your football gathering plans, check out www.fightbac.org.

Have a winning Super Bowl party from your friends at the Partnership for Food Safety Education!

More resources
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
https://www.cdc.gov/features/superbowlplaybook/index.html

Seriously? Food poisoning at a food safety meeting!

PFSE employee learns the value of her work first-hand

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You may have heard the ironic news that attendees at the Food Safety Summit in Baltimore last April reported symptoms of food poisoning. An investigation by the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found the illnesses were likely caused by Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens), bacteria that appears mostly in meat products and is the result of a failure to hold foods at a high enough temperature.

I was one of the 200+ conference attendees that experienced the food poisoning! It was an experience that I, a BAC Fighter and employee of the Partnership for Food Safety Education, was surprised to have at a food safety meeting (I mean- come on!).

The sleepless and long night of discomfort I experienced did make clear how important it is that everyone play their part in preventing food poisoning, and that a culture that engages everyone in keeping food safe is critical to reducing food poisoning and its severe health impacts.

As Mike Taylor, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine recently stated, “…We’re not talking about lots of stomach aches. We’re talking about life-changing illness in many cases.” For me, the C. Perfringens incidence demonstrated how important it is that young people learn about the risk of food poisoning, and also learn the healthy food handling habits that can be carried into adulthood.

This experience also shows why the work of BAC Fighters [YOU!] is ever more important. Using Fight BAC!®  materials to reach youth and families in your communities is critical to establishing life-long healthy behaviors that reduce the risk of food poisoning. And when young people enter the food service workforce, safe food handling practices will be second nature!

Because food safety education isn’t about preventing a few stomach aches. It’s about reducing the risk of potentially life-changing illness.

 

 

Food Safety Superstar

What do you do when you have an encounter with a serious foodborne illness? You Fight BAC! ®

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Dana Dziadul acquired Salmonella Poona after eating contaminated cantaloupe at the age of three.  She’s developed reactive arthritis as a result of the food poisoning. It affects her life every day.  Dana’s experience with a serious illness inspired her to become a food safety advocate – specifically to help keep children like her seven- year old sister safe from food poisoning.

Dana, now 17,  has released a book titled Food Safety Superstar that turns the four core practices into four core Superpowers every kid (and adult) needs to protect themselves against food poisoning. According to Dana, anyone can gain these superpowers with a little education.

Dana will join the Partnership for Food Safety Education and hundreds of health and food safety educators at the Consumer Food Safety Education Conference 2014. She will be featured in the plenary session, Champions for Consumers: Food Safety Educators in Action.