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Food Safety Tips for BBQ Season

With Memorial Day just around the corner, we’re about to kickoff cookout season! And it’s important for your family and guests to follow food safety guidelines to avoid food poisoning.

Food poisoning at cookouts tends to happen when food is contaminated with germs that make us sick. This is usually caused by:

• Forgetting to wash your hands after handling raw meat

• Leaving food out in the heat that should be refrigerated

• Under-cooking meat

• Not washing produce

You can take some simple precautions to keep yourself and your guests healthy at your next cookout.

• Clean: Wash produce before eating/cooking and wash your hands and surfaces after handling raw meat, fish or eggs.

• Separate: Do not cross-contaminate your cooked food with raw meat or eggs.

• Cook: Use a food thermometer to ensure that meat is cooked completely – 145 degrees for whole meat, 160 degrees for ground meat and 165 degrees for poultry

• Chill: Return food to the refrigerator within two hours of serving, or after one hour when it’s hot outside.

In most cases food poisoning causes symptoms like upset stomach, vomiting and diarrhea that may resolve naturally within 24 hours. To be safe, you should seek medical attention if you suspect food poisoning.

Need fast medical care? Make an appointment online for any of our three conveniently located Urgent Care Centers, located in Germantown, Laurel and Rockville.

Find more family health tips and resources at www.AdventistHealthCare.com/NurseRose