Use care so outdoor dining is a pleasant experience

Next weekend will undoubtedly be a big outdoor dining weekend. And soon tailgating season will start. Outdoor cooking presents some special food safety challenges. When cooking and serving food in an outdoor setting, be sure to follow some basic food safety guidelines.

The first and most important consideration whether cooking indoors or out is to wash your hands thoroughly before starting to handle food. It's also important to wash them after handling raw meat, or when starting to work with another food. Use warm water and enough soap for a lather. In the elementary schools, we teach the children to wash their hands as long as it takes to sing "The ABC Song" or 15-20 seconds. Outdoors, warm water and soap may not be readily available. In that case, gel hand sanitizers are a good alternative. They aren't as effective if visible dirt is on your hands, but certainly are better than nothing at all.

Steaks can be served pink in the center, or medium rare--145º internal temperature. All poultry and ground meats should be thoroughly cooked--165º for poultry and 160º for ground beef. Color alone is not a good indicator of doneness. Research at Kansas State University has shown that ground beef can be brown in color on the inside before it has reached a safe internal temperature. A meat thermometer not only tells when meat is done enough to be safe to eat, it also insures that food is not overcooked.

Use a clean platter for cooked meat and poultry, not the same platter which held the raw meat. All cooking utensils, and hands, should be thoroughly washed with soap and warm water after coming into contact with raw meat.

Never re-use marinades. If you'll want some for the cooked meat, set aside a portion before marinating the meat.

Keep all perishable foods out of the temperature danger zone. Between 40º to 140º is the temperature range where bacteria grow most rapidly. Hot foods need to be kept above 140º and cold foods below 40º. Keep cold foods refrigerated, or packed in ice in coolers until time to serve. Don't replenish a nearly empty dish, such as potato salad, with fresh chilled food. It's better to put cold foods in smaller containers and to replace them as necessary with new serving containers directly from the cooler. Discard cold dishes that have been in the danger zone for two hours, or after one hour if the outdoor air temperature is above 90 degrees.

Mayonnaise is often considered the food poisoning villain at picnics and barbeques. However, because of its high acid content, store-bought mayonnaise actually slows bacterial growth. It's the other ingredients in salads--such as meat, poultry, or eggs--which are highly perishable.

Outdoor dining can be great fun. Following some simple food safety guidelines can insure that all your outdoor dining experiences are pleasant ones.