Fourth of July is today, and many Alabamians are getting ready to cook a homemade meal or fire up the grill. Whatever the occasion, health professionals warn of possible food dangers and ways to avoid them this Independence Day.
Denise DeSalvo is a licensed dietician and senior instructor at the University of Alabama’s College of Human Environmental Sciences. DeSalvo said she emphasizes hand hygiene before and during food preparation.
“We have to be reminded frequently to stay clean,” she said. “Wash your hands for 20 seconds. Some people sing the ‘Happy Birthday’ song a couple of times or even sing the letters of the alphabet a few times.”
Most Alabamians have their preference of hand soaps. DeSalvo said any of these will do, including regular hand and bar soaps, hand sanitizers and wet wipes.
“It doesn’t have to be fancy,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be foaming hand soap or soap sanitizer combinations that might still be out there on the market. [Just] rub them, rinse them and then dry them off with a clean, ideally, single serve item like a paper towel.”
DeSalvo also recommends separating and cleaning cutting boards and other food surfaces with sanitizing wipes.
Though most Alabamians already know these guidelines, DeSalvo said these are often things residents do not do that may risk their health. She said one tip people may miss is keeping uncooked foods away from ready-to-eat items.
“We want to make sure that our raw meats and poultry are separate from the hamburger buns, the clean lettuce [and] the sliced tomatoes,” she said. “Use two coolers if you need to. Have one cooler for your raw food [and] another for your ready-to-eat foods.” DeSalvo said another tip residents should consider is keeping foods refrigerated and away from excessive heat.
“Once you are finished cooking and eating those items, put them back into the cooler,” she said. “Don’t put them under a tree thinking, ‘Oh, it’s cool in the shade.’ In really high temperatures, don’t let food sit out for longer than an hour… Some sources say up to four hours, [but] there are a few contingencies for that number. It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
One recommendation DeSalvo has for keeping food cool is putting meals in small containers. Instead of storing potato salad or coleslaw in a large pan, she said it is best to use two or even four containers for every food item.
However, DeSalvo said Alabamians need to be most cautious when handling protein items, including ground meat products, pork products, poultry products and seafood. This means that grillers and pit masters have additional guidelines to follow.
“We operate under the assumption that if it’s cooked, it’s safe, and I can leave it out for indefinite periods of time,” DeSalvo said. “That is just not true. The other thing that many grill or pit masters will talk about it is just cook food until it is done, and the way you can tell that is by color or by firmness. You can see them pressing down a meat patty and [saying] it’s firm. That’s not true.”
DeSalvo said the best way grillers and pit masters can avoid raw or undercooked meat is by inserting a food thermometer in the thickest portion of the meat before taking it off the grill. Food thermometers are commonly found in grocery stores and other local retailers. In addition, Alabamians should clean the grill for lingering food residue before cooking again.
She also recommends certain cooking temperatures for different meat products:
- Hamburgers and other beef items: minimum 155 to 160 degrees Fahrenheit
- Chicken, turkey and other poultry items: minimum 165 degrees Fahrenheit
- Shrimp, salmon and other seafood items: minimum 145 degrees Fahrenheit
More food safety tips can be found on the Department of Agriculture’s website.
