Grilling safety tips for Memorial Day weekend | Food and Drink

Memorial Day weekend marks the start of grilling season and the California Department of Public Health wants everyone to have a delicious and safe BBQ experience. This video features Food Safety Chief Pat Kennelly providing grilling safety tips to keep you and your family healthy all season long! Ensuring that the food you serve is safe is as simple as following these practical approaches:

• Wash your hands with warm, soapy water before and after handling food.
• Make sure your utensils and food contact surfaces are clean.  Never put fresh vegetables or ready to eat foods on cutting boards or platters used for raw meat or poultry unless the surfaces have been thoroughly washed with soap and water.
• Thaw your frozen meat and poultry in a refrigerator, not on the kitchen counter.  Make sure that juices from thawing meats cannot drip onto other food in the refrigerator. Microwave thawing is acceptable if the meat is grilled immediately after thawing.
• Do not use marinades that were in contact with raw meat or poultry to baste meat on the grill.  If you would like to have marinade available while grilling, set some aside, so it does not become contaminated by the raw meat juices.
• Wait until foods are completely cooked before taste testing.
• Color is not an accurate way to determine if meat is sufficiently cooked.  Instead, always use an accurate thermometer to measure the final internal temperature of your meat and poultry.  Recommended final internal cooking temperatures are:

• 165 °F —Poultry
• 160 °F —Hamburgers, Pork
• 140° - 145 °F —Beef, Veal and Lamb (Steak Roasts and Chops) – Medium Rare
• 160 °F - Beef, Veal and Lamb (Steak Roasts and Chops) – Medium

• Have clean plates and utensils available for cooked meats.  Never put cooked meat or poultry on the same plates used to bring the raw meat to the grill.
• Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.  Bacteria can grow in foods that are kept in the temperature “danger zone” (41°F—135°F) for an extended period of time.
• Chill leftovers to less than 41°F as soon as possible, but definitely within 2 hours.