How To Avoid Giving Everyone Food Poisoning at Your Next Potluck

Read this before your next gathering.

When I think about warm weather, my mind immediately goes to enjoying potlucks and picnics outside with friends and family. But if you don’t take proper food safety precautions, an idyllic  buffet can quickly become unsafe with harmful bacteria that can lead to food poisoning. To protect yourself and your guests at your next gathering from foodborne illnesses, it’s important to prioritize food safety while cooking, handling, transporting, and serving food.

The United States Department of Agriculture says that “cleanliness prevents illness,” in regards to properly handling and maintaining your cooking and serving spaces. As such, we’ve outlined a few of the leading causes of foodborne illnesses—undercooked meat, improper storage, and neglecting product dating—and have outlined ways to host a safe picnic.

Related: The 10 Riskiest Foods to Eat, According to Food Safety Data

Cook Meat Thoroughly

Raw meat can carry harmful bacteria that can cause foodborne illnesses. That’s why it’s important to have a thermometer nearby to cook your meat thoroughly. If you don’t know the proper food-safety temperature that you should be cooking your meats until, our editorial team has outlined Safe Minimum Internal Food Temperatures for almost any kind of meat that’ll be at your barbecue this weekend. But as a quick rule of thumb, here are a few important internal temperatures to know for popular meats:

• Beef: 143 degrees F (43 degrees C)

• Pork: 145 degrees (63 degrees C)

• Chicken: 165 degrees (74 degrees C)

Keep Your Food Separate

Cross-contamination can happen in a plethora of ways—using the same cutting board for raw meat as you do for fresh food, transporting raw meat, and not swapping out your utensils. It’s imperative to keep raw food as far away from other food as possible. This means not preparing raw meats on the same surfaces as other surfaces, and once your meat is thoroughly cooked, moving it safely to a new, clean plate to avoid cross-contamination.

Don’t Let Your Food Sit Out Too Long

Preventing food poisoning begins with handling food properly once purchased and made. As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to keep cold foods cold and hot food hot at your picnic to prevent the growth of bacteria. The Food and Drug Administration recommends keeping food out of the “Danger Zone” which means between “40 degrees F and 140 degrees F for more than two hours, or 1 hour if outdoor temperatures are above 90 degrees F. This is when bacteria in food can multiply rapidly, and lead to foodborne illness.”

This means that if you have cold dishes like chicken salad and fruit, you should keep them in coolers until serving time. Once served, it should not sit out for more than two hours. If you’re preparing hot foods, make sure to wrap them in an insulated container to preserve as much heat as possible before serving.

FoodKeeper is also an excellent website that helps consumers understand how to best store and consume food, beverage and produce to maximize the freshness and quality of items.

Understand Product Dating

We’ve all had that moment in front of the fridge or cabinet while staring at a past-date carton of milk or can of peaches, questioning whether or not it's safe to eat or cook with. It can be difficult to calculate if something is "safe" to consume, even though it is one of the most important decisions you make when eating and serving food. Food manufacturers date their products as a way for retailers and customers to make informed decisions on what to buy and eat food at its best—so here’s a bit more information on what the dating means for you, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

• "Best if Used By/Before" Date: This marker lets consumers know when the product will be at its best flavor or quality, which is not necessarily an indication of safety.

• "Sell-By" Date: A product’s sell-by date is merely a way for retailers to keep track of inventory, which isn’t always important to the consumer.

• "Use-By" Date: Use-by stickers are intended to let consumers know when the last date is for consuming the product while it is at its peak quality. It isn’t inherently a safety date, unless it is for infant formula.

• "Freeze-By" Date: This sticker tells consumers when a product should be frozen to preserve its quality, and again, it is not a safety date.

And while this product dating doesn’t always tell the entire story about when a product is safe to consume, we recommend reviewing the USDA’s Food Product Dating sheet, which goes a bit more in-depth on when and when to not consume products and staying alert on food recalls from retailers.

It’s important to keep yourself as well as your friends and family safe during picnic and potluck season. If you have a question about food safety, you can call the USDA’s hotline to speak with a food safety specialist: 1-888-674-6854 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. EST to get answers on all things food safety, storage and quality. 

Read the original article on All Recipes.