You cannot ignore these basic BBQ food safety tips if you want to avoid a dodgy belly or food poisoning. Follow these simple steps and serve up an outstanding outdoor barbecue.
BBQ FOOD SAFETY TIPS: Barbecuing safely starts with the basics.
Most of us have 'sterile stomachs' compared to years gone by. That means we struggle to handle the crude or unrefined approach to food hygiene.
Barbecuing outside doesn't require too much sterility. But, there are a handful of basic rules for grilling food to keep the bacteria at bay.
Raw meat contains germs and bacteria. Food bacteria double every 20 minutes in optimum conditions - called the 'danger zone'. They can cause an upset stomach or severe food poisoning in some cases.
Avoid the risks of barbecue food poisoning. Make sure that all raw meat gets grilled thoroughly. There are two specific risk factors to health when barbecuing meat outside:
You could consider the safest option of pre-cooking the food indoors first. Barbecuing the cooked food outside will then add that 'just grilled' flavour. Cooking chicken, pork, sausages, burger, kebabs, and turkey means checking that:
Note: Avoid leaving cooked food open to the air for longer than 2 hours (one hour if it's hot weather outside). Always follow the fire safety tips for cooking barbecues on charcoal grills.
There are several food safety tips for barbecue cooking. Most outdoor BBQs will involve pork, chicken, burgers, sausages, or steak fillets.
If you are going to cook meat on a BBQ make sure that:
It is important to handle raw meat for barbecues with caution. The germs in raw meat can transfer onto your hands. That means it is easy for the germs to spread further on to anything else that you touch.
The danger increases if germs spread to food that is already cooked and ready for consumption. This also applies to raw meat coming in contact with cooking utensils. Using the utensils on other food can also contaminate it with bacteria and germs.
Following these 6 simple steps will help to prevent spreading germs from raw meat used on barbecues:
Keeping the following food types chilled or cool will also help prevent outbreaks of food poisoning:
Family picnics are fun ways to eat cold packed meals in the garden or open countryside. Follow this picnic food safety advice to avoid spoiling the outing.
Food Safety Tips for BBQ: Barbecuing Outdoors in the United Kingdom