Health Weekender: It’s 4th of July—have fun, keep your food safe

If there’s one thing that can ruin a perfectly good picnic, it’s a nasty case of food poisoning. If you’re planning to grill this 4th-of-July weekend, here are some important guidelines to help keep your family and friends safe.

Safe storage

Safe handling starts at the supermarket, so when buying raw meat and poultry, the USDA recommends separating it from other food in your shopping cart. And to avoid cross-contamination put packages of meat into plastic bags. Once you’re home, refrigerate meat and poultry within 2 hours of buying it and within 1 hour if the temperature is above 90 degrees outside to minimize bacteria growth. Keep it refrigerated until you’re ready to grill it.

Once you’re ready to grill, don’t use the same platter and utensils for raw and cooked meat and poultry to avoid spreading harmful bacteria. If you’re grilling, but not in your own backyard, be sure you have access to water for prep and clean up. Or pack clean cloths and wet towelettes for cleaning surfaces and hands.

Safe cooking

Undercooking and overcooking food are both common grilling mistakes. Many barbecue gourmets know the dangers of undercooking, but you may not know that eating beef, chicken, lamb, pork, or fish grilled until it's overcooked, or burnt and charred, might increase the risk of developing certain cancers. The National Cancer Institute recommends cooking meats below 325 degrees F, marinating meat—which has been shown to reduce the cancer-causing compounds, called HCAs—and not cooking directly over the flame since dripping fat or marinade can create flare-ups that contribute to HCAs.

To check doneness of meat, insert an instant-read thermometer into the side of steaks and chops or into the thickest part of burgers and chicken to ensure proper temperatures have been reached. Cook food to at least the following internal temperatures, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When reheating fully cooked meats like hot dogs, grill to 165 degrees F or until steaming hot.

Have a healthful holiday

No July 4th celebration is complete without hot dogs and burgers—but you can dig into traditional favorites and still be healthy by trying to:

Add veggies. Throw some zucchini, squash, and tomatoes on the grill—they taste great, and because they’re high in nutrients, you’ll feel a little less guilty about that second or third helping of potato salad.

Reach for veggie burgers. We know you love beef, but veggie burgers are lower in calories and fat than a conventional burger and higher in fiber. We recently tested 12 veggie burger brands and found 10 that ranked “very good.” Take a look at our Ratings (subscribers only).

Cut the fat. Hot dogs are packed with sodium, additives, and fat. Consider one of the lower-fat franks in our taste test: Hebrew National Kosher Reduced Fat Beef Franks, Boar’s Head Lite Skinless Beef Franks, Oscar Mayer Light Beef Franks, and Ball Park Lite Franks.

Cut the salt. An afternoon of barbecued goodies can easily push you over your daily limit of sodium. Scale back the amount of salt you use this weekend—look for no-salt-added condiments and salad dressings.

—Ginger Skinner

Get more tips on how to avoid foodborne illness, read the USDA’s Safe Food Handling guidelines, and see our Safety blog for more on grill safety. And don’t forget fireworks safety!

Image: TheBusyBrain