Top tips for fair weather cooking!
Barbecues can be a great outdoors eating experience if you get it right, but the consequences of getting it wrong can be pretty grim. Cases of food poisoning almost double over the summer months and a considerable proportion of this jump in incidents has to be attributable to barbecue blunders.
So here are some basic facts collected by the Food Standards Agency when it comes to barbecues:
51% of people cooking on a barbecue use the same tongs for raw meat, as they do for cooked meat and 19% don’t keep raw and cooked foods on separate plates!!
24% of people who aren’t the main cook in the kitchen claim to be the main barbecue cook – it’s a “man thing”.
56% of men say that they are the “main cook” at a barbecue compared to 21% of women.
28% of people barbecuing don’t check that burgers and sausages are cooked through and staggeringly, 32% don’t check that chicken is properly cooked!
So we know the risks: eating outside with flies and pets buzzing around, raw food out in the open in the heat and the sun, people throwing raw chicken onto a grill right next to the sausages that are just ready to be served; and then its dished up along with fresh salads covered in mayonnaise that have been out of the fridge for hours before we sit down to eat – veritable vomit and diarrhoea disaster just waiting to happen!
Six top tips to stay safe:
- Pre-cook it’s a really good idea to pre-cook chicken and pork in the oven prior to finishing it off on your barbecue. It will still have that barbecue taste and flavour, and probably be scorched around the edges, but it will be cooked right through without the dangerous element thrown in. This is a useful technique for sausages, kebabs and burgers too, especially if you’re cooking for large numbers.
- Keep plates, cutlery and ready to eat foods, like salads, away from all raw meat and fish. Never use plates or serving spoons / tongs etc. for cooked food that have been in contact with raw meat or fish – no point in being the “hostess with the mostest” if you’re dishing up a side order of bacteria to your guests.
- Disposable barbecues take longer to heat up, longer to cook food and won’t last as long so always check your food is cooked right through and don’t overload the barbecue.
- Avoid cross-contamination (sounds technical but its quite simple) store raw meat separately before cooking, use different utensils, plates, chopping boards etc. for raw & cooked food, and ALWAYS wash your hands after handling raw meats, fish and eggs. In other words do whatever it takes to stop the bacteria crossing from raw food to the stuff that’s ready to eat!
- Charred on the outside doesn’t always mean cooked on the inside – we’ve all seen it, the chicken drumstick, burnt to a cinder on the outside yet still raw when you cut, or worst still, bite into the middle. Keep turning your food and use a sharp knife to check your burgers, sausages and chicken are all cooked right through. Remember that most types of meat are safe to eat when:
– the meat is steaming hot throughout
– there is no pink meat visible when you cut into the thickest part
– any juices run clear.
- Keep cold foods below 5°C and hot foods above 63°C And don’t leave food that you would store in the fridge standing around in the warm, before serving.
So there you have it – follow some fairly straightforward rules and keep your food fantastic and your summer safe for friends and family barbecues.
If you want to check out more factsheets and information take a look at the Food Standard Agency‘s website.
