Food Safety Tips for Summer

Keep Them Safe This Summer with These Easy Food Safety Tips

What You'll Discover Here:

Ah, summertime…… picnics, barbecues, cookouts, family gatherings in the sun – fun!

But if you’ve ever become ill after eating food, you’ll know you don’t want a repeat of that, and you don’t want it happening to anyone else.

So when you have your next picnic, cookout or party, use these 6 easy food safety tips to make sure everyone enjoys the food and stays healthy.

1. Food Safety Tips for Meat

Raw meat must be properly looked after on a hot day. It can spoil quickly in the heat. And, blood from raw meat can spread bacteria to surfaces and other food. No one wants to get salmonella or worse.

Make sure you keep raw meat separate from all the other food, and keep the containers separate too.

But the best way to avoid these problems is to prepare as much at home as you can – if you precook / parboil food like ribs or chicken, then you’re not dealing with raw meat.

(And you’ll have more time to relax when you’re out in the sunshine!).

Related: Is meat green and sustainable?

2. Food Safety Tips for Cold Food

You need to keep cold foods cold, especially salads that contain mayonnaise – it can turn rancid in the heat.

Instead of large bowls that are hard to pack and keep cold, package food in smaller containers that are easier to keep cool.

Related: Food Storage Products – the Eco-Friendly Way

Even better than ice are ice packs. Keep them in the freezer until use, and then layer them around your foods.

Although Ice packs are commonly made of plastic, they are re-usable. (I’ve been re-using my ice blocks for almost 40 years now). That makes them green and eco friendly, and also you’re not wasting precious water by making it into ice which then melts and drips away.

3. Food Safety Tips for Pests

Wasps, flies, ants and more are attracted to food. When you’re eating outdoors, you don’t want flies spreading germs.

It’s easy enough to cover food to keep the insects out:

Use re-usable storage with lids
if you’ve got a mosquito net, place your table under a tree, attach the net to the tree and drape it over the food
Use those little plate covers (mini mosquito nets)

Related: Eco Friendly Mosquito Repellents

4. Good Menu Choices

Many people choose various types of salad for outdoor eating – and that’s generally healthy and eco-friendly. But salads wilt easily in the heat and may even go bad.

So consider alternative foods instead – for example, nuts and dried fruit don’t mind the heat, don’t need to be kept cold, and are easy to transport.

Related: 3 ways to avoid food waste

5. Food Safety Tips for Ice

If you’re using ice to keep food cool, don’t re-use that ice for drinks as it may be unsanitary. Keep some ice specifically and only for adding to drinks if required.

6. What About Wipes?

If you’re handling and cooking food, you’ll want to keep your hands and some surfaces clean.

To be green and eco-friendly you don’t want to use disposables.

food safety tips - reusable picnic basket — Re-useable luxury picnic basket – picnic-basket com

Bring re-usable napkins for everyone (just toss them in the washing machine when you get home, it’s not any more work than disposables).

Same for plates and glasses – and everything tastes so much better and feels so much more civilized when it’s not served on cheap disposable items!

Don’t use wet wipes because they are single-use disposable items which cannot be composted (very un-green).

If you must use disposable paper napkins, be sure to compost them afterwards.

It’s Easy!

These 6 tips are simple and straightforward. They’ll keep you green, eco friendly and safe when you have fun in the sun. Enjoy!

Why not share this useful article with your friends and family? Sharing buttons below and right – thank you!

Editor’s Note – this article was originally published in 2015 and has been updated.

Share 0