Are you getting ready to head outside for a picnic, a cookout, a barbecue, a potluck, or a pitch-in? No matter what you call it, warm weather means outdoor parties! Eating outside can have a few food safety issues. Get our best tips to keep your summer parties as safe as you can.
Tips for Summer Food Safety
{This post is sponsored by Glass Barn. Referral links are used in this post.}
Ah, summer! The weather is warm, the grass is green, the flowers are blooming, and everyone heads outside! One of our favorite things to do is to eat outside, whether that’s just a quick dinner on the deck or we’re packing up lots of yummy food to take to a big picnic or cookout. There are some basic techniques that we probably all know to keep our food safe in our own homes, but what happens when we travel with food? How can we still practice good (easy) food safety at a cookout and still have a good time? With these easy food safety tips!
Safely Thaw Food Ahead
If you’ll be pulling anything out of the freezer, be sure that you have enough time to safely thaw it. In general, it takes about 24 hours to thaw up to 5 pounds of food, whether it’s a ham, a turkey, or a frozen casserole. Clear out a space at the bottom of your refrigerator or use a cooler (and monitor the temperature) to stash your frozen foods while they’re thawing.
Prep Food at Home
Do as much of the prep work at home as you can. Wash and slice vegetables and fruits, marinate meat and poultry, mix up sauces, and make salads.
Bring Everything You Might Need
Depending on where you’re heading for your picnic, you might not have access to running water. If you aren’t sure, or you know you won’t have running water, it’s a good idea to bring a jug of water for washing hands. At a minimum, you should bring hand sanitizer and hand wipes to clean your hands before you start cooking and after you handle raw meat or poultry.
Other things to consider bringing are paper towels, paper plates, utensils for handling raw meat and poultry, utensils for handling cooked meat and poultry (or a way to clean the ones used for the raw food), utensils for eating, serving spoons, serving platters, trash bags, and Ziploc bags to pack up leftovers. Don’t forget plenty of ice!
Pack Your Coolers the Right Way
The fuller your coolers are, and the more they can stay closed, the longer they will stay cold. You’re better off to have multiple smaller coolers instead of one big huge cooler.
If possible, have one cooler that is only for drinks. Keep the drinks snuggled down in the ice so they stay nice and cold. This is the cooler that people will most likely be in the most, so keep any other foods separate.
A separate cooler should be used for transporting any raw meat or poultry to the picnic site. Keep the raw food on plenty of ice so it stays nice and cold until you’re ready to cook it. Once everything is cooked, discard the ice from this cooler and don’t use the cooler again until it can be washed.
Use another cooler for anything that just needs to be kept cold – sliced fruits and veggies, potato or macaroni salad, condiments, whatever else you might be bringing to your picnic.
You’ll also want to think about bringing home any leftovers. Hopefully, you’ll have enough room in the the drink and “cold food” coolers, so you won’t need to use the “raw meat” cooler until it can be thoroughly cleaned. If you think you might need more space, it would be a good idea to bring another cooler partly full of ice just for transporting the leftovers.
And speaking of ice, if you’re going to be out all day or if it is an extra-hot day, you can never have too much ice! Consider bringing another cooler just for extra ice.
When you get to your picnic spot, find a place in the shade to park your coolers. If you can, cover them with blankets to keep the cold inside even better.
Keep Cold Foods Cold and Keep Hot Foods Hot (and other serving tips)
When it’s time to eat, you’ll want to be sure to keep your cold foods cold and your hot foods hot. This is where ice, serving dishes, insulated carriers, slow cookers, and small portions come into play. Check out these posts for more ideas and tips on how to keep your cold foods cold and your hot foods hot while everyone is enjoying the party.
If you brought a big portion of a cold salad (like a big batch of Sweet Maple Bacon Pasta Salad, for example), it’s a good idea to only put out part of it at once. Use a smaller bowl to put out some of the cold foods, and keep the rest back in the closed cooler. When people finish up the part that’s out, just restock from the cooler!
Condiments like ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise last a long time, but not if they’ve been outside all day long. Find smaller squeeze bottles to use at your picnic, and discard the leftovers at the end of the day. If possible, keep the condiments in a small cooler or a bowl of ice to keep them fresh all day long.
How Long Can You Leave Food Out?
Food should not be left sitting out at room temperature for longer than 2 hours (1 hour if the temperature is above 90 degrees F). Keeping cold foods on ice and keeping hot foods heated or in insulated containers can help, but your target should always be no more than 2 hours.
Pack up Leftovers
When everyone is done eating, pack up the leftovers. Wrap leftovers in plastic wrap, aluminum foil, or Ziploc bags and stash them in a cooler. Keep the cooler in the shade until you’re ready to load it in the car to head home.
Once you get home, don’t forget to unpack the cooler and get your leftovers in the refrigerator right away!
What’s your favorite food to bring to a summer picnic or cookout?
Enjoy!
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[…] grilling at home, you can probably get to your kitchen sink easily. If you’ll be grilling out at a picnic site, check to see if you’ll have access to running water. If not, bring a bottle of water and […]