Potluck food safety: Don’t bring uninvited germs to your party

Potlucks are great places to hang out with friends and family and eat some great food. But if you don’t follow food safety, they can also be places for trouble. 

Cooking for potlucks or large groups means you need to take extra steps to keep food safe. The large numbers of people, crowded space and buffet-style food set-up can spell a recipe for disaster.

You can get sick when germs are present on the food you eat. This is called food poisoning and can make you feel really sick. Germs can get on food at any point during food handling, cooking or storage. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that over 48 million Americans get food poisoning every year. The risk is highest for young children, seniors and pregnant women.

But there are many ways to keep your next potluck event more yum than yuck.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says food safety begins at the sink. Make sure to wash your hands before making food and always wash fruits and vegetables before use. Use clean counter space, utensils and storage containers for your food. Never re-use cutting boards or knives that have been used with raw meat before washing.

Some dishes make better party guests than others. The Food and Drug Administration says egg-containing dishes like mayonnaise, homemade Caesar salad dressing, chocolate mousse and deviled eggs need extra care. Make sure to keep these dishes in the fridge right until party time. It’s best if you can put out small portions of these foods. That way, you can replace the plate with fresh food from the fridge or cooler throughout the party.

When transporting and serving — avoid the danger zone! Bacteria can quickly multiply in temperatures between 40 degrees and 140 degrees. So keep food above or below these temperatures. To keep foods hot, use warming plates or slow cookers and to keep it cold, use ice. Have small spoons ready for dips or sauces to keep people from dipping food directly in these shared bowls.

Stick to the two-hour rule: Food should not be left out at room temperature for more than two hours, according to USDA. After two hours, food should be thrown away. If the event is outside and the temperature is over 90 degrees, throw out after one hour. If in doubt, throw it out.

To keep your next event safe, spread the word and dish out this advice to others bringing food to the party!

Thanksgiving food tips from USDA: When it comes to the bird, safety’s the word

Today’s guest blog on turkey safety is by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.

USDA Thanksgiving Food Safety Infographic

Whether you’re a Thanksgiving cooking pro or newbie, preparing one of the largest meals of the year can be stressful. To avoid making mistakes that could cause foodborne illness, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service wants you to be aware of these common Thanksgiving myths:

• Myth: You should wash your raw turkey
  Food safety experts — including us at USDA — don’t recommend washing raw meat and poultry before cooking. Many bacteria are quite loosely attached, and when you rinse these foods the bacteria will be spread around your kitchen. In fact, research shows that washing meat or poultry in water spreads bacteria throughout the kitchen — onto countertops, other food, towels and you. Water can splash bacteria up to three feet surrounding your sink, which can lead to illnesses.
  
  Researchers at Drexel University have shown that it’s best to move meat and poultry straight from package to pan, as the heat required for cooking will kill any bacteria that may be present.
  
• Myth: You can’t cook a frozen turkey
  If your turkey is still icy on Thanksgiving morning, don’t panic! It’s perfectly safe to cook a turkey from the frozen state. It’ll just take longer to cook. A solidly frozen turkey will take at least 50 percent longer to cook than a thawed turkey. If you cannot separate the giblet package from the turkey at the start, just remember to remove it carefully with tongs or a fork a few hours into the cooking process.
  
• Myth: The bird is done when juices run clear
  Do you check if your Thanksgiving turkey is done by poking the turkey to see if the juices run clear? Do you also keep repeating this process until everyone is hungry and you are left with a dry turkey?
  
  The only way to determine if a turkey is safely cooked and ready to serve is to take the temperature of the turkey with a food thermometer in three locations: the innermost part of the thigh, the innermost part of the wing and the thickest part of the breast. The thermometer should read 165°F.
  
  The juices rarely run clear at this temperature, and when they do the bird is often overcooked. Using the food thermometer is the best way to ensure your turkey is cooked to a safe internal temperature, but not overcooked. 

If you have any Thanksgiving myths you want to check out, call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline — 1-888-674-6854 — where you can talk to a food safety specialist in English or Spanish between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. EST, or chat live at AskKaren.gov. The Meat and Poultry Hotline will even be open on Thanksgiving Day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. EST to take last-minute calls.

Download and share USDA’s turkey safety infographic in English or Spanish.

Fall is here and so is tailgating. Are you ready to grill like a pro?

Fall is one of the most exciting times of the year. School is back in session, leaves change colors and swimsuits and popsicles are traded in for sweaters and pumpkin-flavored everything.

But there’s another thing that gets some Americans jumping for joy in the fall: Football season! And with football season comes another fall favorite, tailgating.

When you’re building up that team spirit and grilling up some tasty football treats, you’ll want to make sure not to sicken your friends and family. Nothing puts a kibosh on fun like a nasty outbreak of food poisoning.

To keep your team healthy, plan ahead when tailgating and grilling in general:

• Make sure any raw meat, or other perishable food, is stored properly and packaged securely to keep it fresh and prevent contamination. 
• Bring enough plates and utensils. You can’t use the same ones for both raw and cooked meat.
• Come prepared with all the supplies you need, including cleaning supplies, water and, most importantly, your trusty food thermometer.

By using your food thermometer when grilling meat, U.S. Department of Agriculture says you’ll be grilling like a “PRO.”

Here’s how, compliments of the Get Ready cheerleading squad:

• Give me a P! Place the thermometer in the thickest part of the meat, or approach from the side if grilling thinner cuts of meat, once you think it’s fully cooked.
• Give me an R! Read the internal temperature off the thermometer after about 15 seconds. If you’re cooking steaks, roasts or chops made from beef, pork, lamb or veal, you’ll want to cook them to 145 degrees with a three-minute rest time. Ground meats should be cooked to at least 160 degrees, and whole poultry, poultry breasts and ground poultry should be cooked to 165 degrees.
• Give me an O! Off the grill and into your mouth. Make sure you don’t reuse the plates and utensils that came into contact with the raw meat. Also, be sure to clean your food thermometer thoroughly after use.

Now you’re tailgating like a P-R-O! Goooooooo, team! 

Spring is here! Use USDA’s new food preparedness graphic to clean out your fridge

Spring cleaning is about more than just cleaning out your closets. It’s also a good time to clean out your refrigerator, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Get Ready team spoke with USDA public affairs specialist Kristina Beaugh, MPH, on how you can make sure the food in your fridge is safe. Beaugh is part of USDA’s food safety education staff.

USDA has a new refrigerator food safety infographic. What does it say about the importance of an organized refrigerator?
With the start of spring, many people will be looking to clean and organize the house from top to bottom. It’s important to remember your refrigerator during your spring cleaning regimen. Keeping your refrigerator clean and organized helps to reduce your risk of foodborne illness and can also minimize the amount of food that spoils. USDA’s “Your Fridge + Food Safety” infographic is a great tool to keep handy while you’re cleaning. It goes over everything from temperature and storage to how to keep your fridge clean and fresh.

Step-by-step, take us through the process of turning an unsafe, messy fridge to an organized, safe, risk-free one.
The first step is to make sure your refrigerator is set to the right temperature. Refrigeration slows bacterial growth on your food, so it’s important to keep your fridge and freezer at a temperature that will keep your food safe and help it to stay fresher longer. Your refrigerator should be set to 40° F or below, and your freezer should be set to 0° F or below. You can measure your fridge’s internal temperature with an appliance thermometer.

Next, it’s time to store the food. Did you know that where you store certain foods could have an effect on their safety and freshness? It’s true! Here are some helpful guidelines:

• Raw meat and poultry should be stored in a sealed container or securely wrapped on a plate to prevent juices from contaminating other foods.
• Sealed crisper drawers provide an ideal storage environment for fruits and vegetables. Some refrigerators may allow you to customize each drawer’s humidity level. If so, vegetables require higher humidity, while fruits require lower humidity.
• Never store perishable foods in the door. The temperature of doors changes frequently. Instead, use the doors to store things like juice, water and condiments.
• Perishable foods like eggs, dairy and raw meat and poultry should be stored on shelves in the main compartment where the temperature is more stable.
• Food stored in the freezer is safe indefinitely. Although quality may suffer with lengthy storage, frozen food is safe forever.

If you’re ever left wondering how long different foods last in the fridge and freezer, don’t worry — you’re not alone. A general rule of thumb for refrigerator storage is three to four days for cooked foods, one to two days for poultry and ground meat and up to five days for whole cuts of meat. For storage information on more than 400 foods and beverages, download the FoodKeeper app. It’s free and it’s available for Apple and Android products.

And finally, keeping your refrigerator clean isn’t necessarily the last step, but rather a step you should remember all year long. Wipe up spills immediately, and clean surfaces thoroughly with hot, soapy water. Sanitize your refrigerator with a diluted bleach solution — one tablespoon unscented bleach to one gallon of water. To keep your refrigerator smelling fresh and to help eliminate odors, place an opened box of baking soda on a shelf.

Where can readers find out more?
If you have additional questions about food safety or organizing your fridge, you can call the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-674-6854. Or chat live with a food safety specialist at AskKaren.gov from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time Monday through Friday, in English or Spanish.

USDA’s “Your Fridge + Food Safety” infographic

USDA gives us the recipe for food safety

Ask Karen from USDA

Whether you’re throwing steaks on the grill or baking cookies in the oven, food safety is something we all have to think about. And food safety during and after a disaster is even more important. We wanted to know more, so we talked to Marianne Gravely, a food safety specialist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

She told us all about two apps that USDA offers to help us know how to store food and how to eat well in an emergency. And we even got to ask her about the USDA’s #GrillinglikeaPro campaign! Plus, this year is the 30th anniversary of USDA’s Meat and Poultry hotline.

Seriously, though, food safety is really important. Foodborne illnesses sicken about 48 million people in the U.S. every year. We’ve posted our conversation with Gravely and we’re linking you to USDA’s apps so you can take steps to make sure you and your family don’t get sick.

Listen to our podcast with Gravely, and download USDA’s free FoodKeeper app for tips on food storage. Check out the Ask Karen app if you have questions about how to keep your food safe all the time. Bon appetit!

Keeping food safe during flooding and power outages

Disasters can strike when you least expect them. Knowing how to properly store food ahead of time can help keep you and your family safe from foodborne illnesses.

Two of the most common emergencies that can happen in the summer are flood and power outages, both of which can affect your food and make it unsafe to eat.

Keeping food safe during power outages:

It’s important to keep meat, poultry, fish, eggs and other perishable food at or below 40 degrees and frozen food at or below 0 degrees. But how can you tell what the temperature is if the power is out? The answer is with an appliance thermometer. You should have one for both your refrigerator and freezer.

To keep your foods cooler for longer during a power outage, the U.S. Department of Agriculture advises you to keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible. The refrigerator will keep food cold for about four hours and a full freezer will stay cold for about 48 hours, or 24 hours if it is half full. (It’s a good idea to print this information out and save it somewhere you can find it when the power goes out.)

If your refrigerator has been without power for more than four hours, discard any perishable food, USDA says. Never taste the food to test its safety!

Keeping food safe during and after floods:

After a flood, drink only bottled water, as public water supplies may be contaminated. If bottled water is not available, boil tap water for safety. Before using dishes, metal pans or utensils that have touched floodwater, wash them with hot soapy water and sanitize by boiling them in clean water.

Losing food to flooding can be devastating, particularly if you have a lot of it. It’s normal to want to save it. But it’s just not worth risking your health or the health of your loved ones.

After a flood, make sure to throw away any of the following if there is any chance it came in contact with floodwater:

• food in cardboard boxes, paper, foil or cloth;
• spices, seasonings, flour, sugar, grain, coffee and other staples;
• unopened jars with wax cardboard seals, such as mayonnaise and salad dressings;
• all canned foods; and
• wooden cutting boards, plastic utensils, baby bottle nipples and pacifiers.

Remember: When in doubt, throw it out!

For more information, check out our Get Ready food and water safety fact sheet and get more tips on food safety from USDA.

Summer Safe: Don’t let these three infectious diseases ruin your summer fun

Do your late summer plans include a trip to a state or county fair? How about a camping trip, or perhaps a visit to a local farm?

Reports of infectious diseases spread by animals and insects have been on the rise this summer. Here are three infectious diseases that have been in the news recently, along with tips for how you can protect yourself and your loved ones.

H3N2v, aka “swine flu,” from pigs

[Image courtesy
USDA/Scott Bauer]

In the last few weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported new cases of a type of influenza, H3N2v, that comes from pigs. Most of the people who got sick with this new type of flu had direct contact with pigs on farms or at state and county fairs. If you work around pigs or if you will be attending a fair or farm show, follow these tips to protect yourself:

• Always wash your hands after touching animals.
• Don’t eat or drink if you’re in an animal enclosure, and keep your hands away from your face.
• If you have a weak immune system or are at high-risk for flu, stay away from pigs. This includes young children and adolescents, pregnant women, people who are already sick and people ages 65 and older.
• Stay away from any animal that looks sick or acts strange. Call a veterinarian if you suspect that an animal is sick.

For more information, check out CDC’s H3N2v page.

[Image courtesy
USDA/Keith Weller]

Salmonella from baby chickens
Live baby poultry such as ducklings and chickens are adorable — what kid can’t resist picking up one of these cute, fuzzy, chirping animals? Don’t let their cuteness fool you: These animals can pose a health risk, especially to young children. Baby poultry, found in petting zoos, fairs and even in classrooms or at home, have been known to spread salmonella.

This year alone, baby chickens have been linked to salmonella cases in states around the country. Here are some tips to prevent illness from salmonella:

• Don’t let children younger than age 5 touch or handle chicks or ducklings.
• Don’t bring chicks, ducklings or other live poultry into your house.
• Make sure anyone who handles baby poultry washes their hands thoroughly with soap and water. Adults should help young children wash their hands. For information about hand-washing for any age group, check out our collection of Get Ready fact sheets!

CDC has more information on salmonella and baby birds on its website.

West Nile virus from mosquitoes

[Mosquito image courtesy
CDC/ Frank Collins, PhD.]

So far this year, 42 states and the District of Columbia have reported West Nile infections in people, birds or mosquitoes. People get West Nile virus when they are bitten by mosquitoes that carry the disease. You can’t tell if a mosquito is infected just by looking at it, so the best protection is to prevent mosquito bites.

• When you go outdoors, use insect repellent — especially at dusk and dawn, when mosquitoes are most active.
• Wear long sleeves and pants when possible.
• Mosquitoes breed in still water, so remember to empty out barrels, flowerpots and buckets that are filled with water on your property or in your neighborhood. 
• Learn more about protecting yourself from mosquitoes by checking out our fact sheet (PDF).

You can learn more about West Nile virus from CDC.

Even though these infectious diseases are on the rise, protecting yourself can be as simple as washing your hands and wearing bug spray. We hope this helps you stay safe this summer!