Hikers can also help your food away from home at the picnic table in learning how to properly pack a cooler
E. coli beef recall nationwide expansion of 1.8 million pounds of ground meat is pulled from the shelves of food and the official start of the picnic season this Memorial Day weekend is a good time to food safety and how you and your guests a nasty disease, the rate to be protected by food.
Picnic lunch in the sweltering summer heat can be dangerous for your health, but need not be, says CEO Richard Callahan Catering and Nutrition Baystate Medical Center, especially if the necessary precautions are taken to keep your picnic food safe.
Outdoor dining in your garden or picnic in the park, the bacteria can multiply rapidly in foods exposed to high summer temperatures. Every year 1-6 Americans get sick from food poisoning, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Callahan said that the friends that you yourself, family and protect some basic advice to heed Food safety begins with washing.
"You have heard experts say, over and over again the importance of hand washing to prevent the spread of germs. 'S food safety, either outdoors on a picnic or in your own kitchen begins with hand-washing. But it is more than washing hands . want to clean utensils and work surfaces, as well, "Callahan said.
The Baystate leader said it was necessary to bring soap and water to wash hands, alcohol for use after hand washing, and some type of bleach cleaner water than the thresholds clean bleach and paper towels to clean knives, cutting boards, cutlery, crockery, tables and other surfaces to minimize the potential for cross-contamination.
"Regardless of whether conventionally or organically grown, you should protect all fruits and vegetables before preparing or eating, to insects, chemicals and bacteria that may be present in them to wash," Callahan said.
After the culinary expert hikers can also help to make them healthy foods
Home to the picnic table to learn how to pack a cooler correctly.
One for Ready-to-eat, one for cooking food on site, and another for drinks only - be (needed 40 ° F or less to prevent the growth of bacteria) the use of chillers with ice or gel packs recommended. A separate beverage cooler is for every time someone opens a drink, perishable food items will not be further exposed to warmer temperatures.
"Can help prevent cross-contamination of bacteria, raw ready-to-eat food with ice," Callahan said.
He suggested that the beef, chicken and seafood will be securely packaged to prevent leakage, so that their juices dripping from on and contaminate other fruits and vegetables prepared or cooked and raw. If refrigerators are not possible, Callahan recommends storage, raw foods such as raw ground beef or chicken in the bottom of the cooler and prepared foods such as lettuce, tomatoes and macaroni salad on top of eating raw foods.
"Separate them with an impermeable barrier, such as a plastic cutting board that can not be used for cutting food later, so there is no contact between the two," Callahan said.
However, another major concern that Callahan "the time and temperature
Abuse. "
"The golden rule that we always like to say it is to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Keep food either hot or cold, sitting in the hot sun, temperatures between 40 ° and 135 ° F, I multiply a breeding ground for bacteria quickly created, "he said.
According to Callahan, mayonnaise-based salads like potato or macaroni and those with meat and other proteins, fruits and vegetables and proteins, such as hot dogs, hamburgers, garden burgers and turkey, tofu and sliced tomatoes and onions even have the potential for rapid deterioration. They should be kept on ice until ready to serve and not leave for more than a few minutes after cooking.
Heads picnic should also pay attention to the foods they do to the internal temperature, the obtained particularly important for the most vulnerable to foodborne illnesses, such as those recently hospitalized patients and people, children, the elderly, and those the immune.
Callahan recommends using a digital thermometer to check the accuracy, the food that has been cooked to a temperature and reduces the potential for food poisoning to ensure bacteria. Recommended temperatures are 165 ° C or higher for poultry and minced meat and meat, including hamburgers, 45 ° C or more for meat and fish, and 160 ° F for pork.
Be "Above all, and I can not stress enough, no perishable food sit for more than two hours to leave and no longer dispose of than an hour above 90 ° C. The temperatures and do not save as" leftovers "for E. eaten. - coli bacteria is not fighting with or conjecture, "Callahan said.
According to Dr. Joseph Schmidt, vice president of Emergency Medicine, Baystate Medical Center, while some cases of food poisoning can be fatal, most of his own will, which usually run its course in 24 to 48 hours.
Typical symptoms are usually a combination of nausea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, diarrhea, or fever.
"Symptoms may begin a few hours after ingestion of contaminated food,
especially when the food authorities have toxin that makes people sick, or made up to 24 hours or later, "Schmidt said.
"Rest and hydration to replenish lost fluids persistent vomiting and diarrhea again
However, the most common foodborne illness treatments is sometimes hospitalization
for those who are severely dehydrated necessary, "he added, noting that antibiotics are not usually used to treat most cases of food poisoning.
Schmidt said that people who experience these signs or symptoms should contact their health care - more than 101.5 F fever, bloody diarrhea, vomiting, diarrhea for several days, and dehydration with excessive thirst, weakness, dizziness or lightheadedness, and frequent urination low output.
Submitted by Baystate Medical Center.
