Post by BBQ Butcher on Jun 16, 2007 9:26:29 GMT -5
Proper Food Safety and Handling
In a previous post I touched on Home/Kitchen Sanitation and how important it is to you and your family’s health. Just as vital is Food Safety and how temperatures affect food.
Bacteria and other food ‘baddies’ exist every where in nature…in the ground, in the air, in our clear blue waters and, YES, our food! Germs love the moisture in food and given time and certain favorable conditions (heat/moisture), they can multiply two-fold or more in as little as 20 minutes.
The “Food Safety Zone”, or as I like to call it “The Rule of Four”, is basically keeping your raw meat/poultry and cooked foods under the temperature of 40° and over the temperature of 140°. The “Food Danger Zone” is between those temps for any length of time from 1 hour to 4 hours, depending on the room or outside temperature at the time. In Florida, especially during the summer months, foods can acquire dangerous bacteria in about 1 hour!
How many times have you been to a family picnic at the park, a work outing or a barbecue get together and seen the potato salad or coleslaw left out in the sun for hours and then someone packs it up and asks, “Who wants the leftovers?” Hopefully, you declined the offer! Every year there are numerous food poisonings reported (and hundreds NOT reported) from tainted mayonnaise in the salads. I urge everyone to seek out mayonnaise FREE recipes for coleslaw and potato salads that you will be sharing during the summer cookouts.
If you are traveling with food, the best thing to do is use a cooler and ice/ice packs to keep the food cold. This also a good way to keep those above salads cool after every one has helped themselves to the first course. It’s not easy keeping cooked foods hot while transporting, so I recommend cooking it at home and then warming it back up when you get to your destination. This pertains particularly to casserole type dishes.
“What are the “safe temperatures” for cooking meat and poultry?”
According to the USDA’s guidelines…..”When roasting meat and poultry, use an oven temperature no lower than 325 °F. Cook beef, veal and lamb steaks, roasts and chops to a safe minimum internal temperature of 145 °F, pork to 160 °F and ground beef, veal and lamb to 160 °F. Poultry should reach a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F throughout the product. However, for poultry, the minimum internal temperature of 165 °F for safety may not achieve the desired doneness for quality purposes. Use a food thermometer to assure that meat and poultry have reached a safe minimum internal temperature.”
The above is certainly open for a broad interpretation, but if the meat/poultry is handled properly during the raw stage (kept under 40° and cooked quickly) you can more than likely vary your finishing internal temperatures without a catastrophe of some kind. In other words, I like my steaks and burgers rare! If raw meat has been left over the 40° range for any length of time, bacteria may grow and produce toxins which will cause a food type illness. Those toxins that are heat resistant are not destroyed by cooking. Therefore, even though cooked, meat and poultry mishandled in the raw state may not be safe to eat even after proper preparation.
“So, how is the best way to stay safe?”
Cool down and store your leftovers as soon as possible. Sometimes this entails putting the food into several containers instead of just one. For soups, stews, chilis, etc, I suggest making an ice bag to put in the middle of it. Just put some ice cubes into a quart size food quality plastic bag. Change out the cubes as they melt.
Reheat your food thoroughly until hot and steamy, at least to an internal temperature of 160°-165°. I suggest covering the food with plastic wrap and heating several times in the microwave using the 60-75% power level. This prevents the food from getting hard and cardboard-like on the edges.
Make sure your home refrigerator is set below 40° (38° is ideal) and your freezer set at 0°. If properly prepped and wrapped, food will keep safe in your freezer for an indefinite length of time, from 1-3 years. Food in your refrigerator WILL eventually spoil and the bacteria will let you know in several ways that it’s not good any more…..smell and looks are the main visuals…these being an off or rotten smell and the presence of mold or slime on the product. As I’ve heard and like to tell people, “If in doubt, throw it out!”. Period.
One last thing….never, and I mean NEVER, thaw meat on the counter for any length of time. This is especially true for whole frozen chickens or turkeys. Frozen food should be thawed naturally in the refrigerator. A pound of hamburger or a steak might take up to one day to thaw and figure about 5 hours a pound for the whole chickens or turkeys.
If you positively have to thaw meat quickly, I suggest you use your microwave’s “Thaw” setting and follow the manufacturer’s recommended instructions. Poultry can also be thawed rather quickly by placing into a sink full of ice and cold water (NOT HOT!) and by changing out the water every 30 minutes. Add ice as needed.
Above all, keep yourself, your family and your guests safe by proper handling, cooking and storing foods at safe temperatures.
In a previous post I touched on Home/Kitchen Sanitation and how important it is to you and your family’s health. Just as vital is Food Safety and how temperatures affect food.
Bacteria and other food ‘baddies’ exist every where in nature…in the ground, in the air, in our clear blue waters and, YES, our food! Germs love the moisture in food and given time and certain favorable conditions (heat/moisture), they can multiply two-fold or more in as little as 20 minutes.
The “Food Safety Zone”, or as I like to call it “The Rule of Four”, is basically keeping your raw meat/poultry and cooked foods under the temperature of 40° and over the temperature of 140°. The “Food Danger Zone” is between those temps for any length of time from 1 hour to 4 hours, depending on the room or outside temperature at the time. In Florida, especially during the summer months, foods can acquire dangerous bacteria in about 1 hour!
How many times have you been to a family picnic at the park, a work outing or a barbecue get together and seen the potato salad or coleslaw left out in the sun for hours and then someone packs it up and asks, “Who wants the leftovers?” Hopefully, you declined the offer! Every year there are numerous food poisonings reported (and hundreds NOT reported) from tainted mayonnaise in the salads. I urge everyone to seek out mayonnaise FREE recipes for coleslaw and potato salads that you will be sharing during the summer cookouts.
If you are traveling with food, the best thing to do is use a cooler and ice/ice packs to keep the food cold. This also a good way to keep those above salads cool after every one has helped themselves to the first course. It’s not easy keeping cooked foods hot while transporting, so I recommend cooking it at home and then warming it back up when you get to your destination. This pertains particularly to casserole type dishes.
“What are the “safe temperatures” for cooking meat and poultry?”
According to the USDA’s guidelines…..”When roasting meat and poultry, use an oven temperature no lower than 325 °F. Cook beef, veal and lamb steaks, roasts and chops to a safe minimum internal temperature of 145 °F, pork to 160 °F and ground beef, veal and lamb to 160 °F. Poultry should reach a safe minimum internal temperature of 165 °F throughout the product. However, for poultry, the minimum internal temperature of 165 °F for safety may not achieve the desired doneness for quality purposes. Use a food thermometer to assure that meat and poultry have reached a safe minimum internal temperature.”
The above is certainly open for a broad interpretation, but if the meat/poultry is handled properly during the raw stage (kept under 40° and cooked quickly) you can more than likely vary your finishing internal temperatures without a catastrophe of some kind. In other words, I like my steaks and burgers rare! If raw meat has been left over the 40° range for any length of time, bacteria may grow and produce toxins which will cause a food type illness. Those toxins that are heat resistant are not destroyed by cooking. Therefore, even though cooked, meat and poultry mishandled in the raw state may not be safe to eat even after proper preparation.
“So, how is the best way to stay safe?”
Cool down and store your leftovers as soon as possible. Sometimes this entails putting the food into several containers instead of just one. For soups, stews, chilis, etc, I suggest making an ice bag to put in the middle of it. Just put some ice cubes into a quart size food quality plastic bag. Change out the cubes as they melt.
Reheat your food thoroughly until hot and steamy, at least to an internal temperature of 160°-165°. I suggest covering the food with plastic wrap and heating several times in the microwave using the 60-75% power level. This prevents the food from getting hard and cardboard-like on the edges.
Make sure your home refrigerator is set below 40° (38° is ideal) and your freezer set at 0°. If properly prepped and wrapped, food will keep safe in your freezer for an indefinite length of time, from 1-3 years. Food in your refrigerator WILL eventually spoil and the bacteria will let you know in several ways that it’s not good any more…..smell and looks are the main visuals…these being an off or rotten smell and the presence of mold or slime on the product. As I’ve heard and like to tell people, “If in doubt, throw it out!”. Period.
One last thing….never, and I mean NEVER, thaw meat on the counter for any length of time. This is especially true for whole frozen chickens or turkeys. Frozen food should be thawed naturally in the refrigerator. A pound of hamburger or a steak might take up to one day to thaw and figure about 5 hours a pound for the whole chickens or turkeys.
If you positively have to thaw meat quickly, I suggest you use your microwave’s “Thaw” setting and follow the manufacturer’s recommended instructions. Poultry can also be thawed rather quickly by placing into a sink full of ice and cold water (NOT HOT!) and by changing out the water every 30 minutes. Add ice as needed.
Above all, keep yourself, your family and your guests safe by proper handling, cooking and storing foods at safe temperatures.