Outdoor Grilling & Food Safety
Outdoor grilling and barbecuing brings the risk of food poisoning. Here are a few basic food safety techniques that can help you prevent foodborne illness when you're cooking on the grill:
Marinating
Meats prepared using
dry-heat cooking methods such as grilling are often marinated beforehand to provide moisture, flavor, or to increase tenderness. Always keep meats refrigerated during the marinating process. And if you intend to use some of the marinating liquid as a sauce, set some of it aside beforehand. If you must make sauce from marinade that has had raw meat or poultry in it, heat it to a boil for at least 30 seconds to kill any
harmful bacteria.
Cook Meats Thoroughly
Cook food to a safe minimum internal temperature to destroy any harmful bacteria. Meat and poultry cooked on a grill can quickly brown on the outside, causing it to look like it's done. But use an
instant-read thermometer to make sure the food has reached its appropriate minimum internal temperature:
- Beef, veal, and lamb steaks, roasts and chops: 145°F
- Hamburgers made of ground beef: 160°F
- All cuts of pork: 160°F
- All poultry: 165°F
- Fish: 145°F
- Fully cooked meats (e.g hot dogs): 165°F
Keep Hot Food Hot
Cooked meats can be kept hot on the grill by moving them to the side of the grill rack. It's important to keep cooked meat and poultry hot — at 140°F or warmer — until you're ready to serve it.
Serving the Food
When you remove cooked meats from the grill, place them on clean plates or platter, not on the same dish they were on before they were cooked. Any raw meat juices remaining on the plate could transfer bacteria to the cooked foods.
Leftovers
Refrigerate leftovers right away, and throw away any food that's been left out for more than two hours. And if the temperature outside is hotter than 90°F, shorten this time to one hour.
