Outdoor Food Safety

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Summer weather offers plenty of opportunities for outdoor gatherings filled with food, fun and moments that will create the summer of a lifetime.

But cooking and handling foods outside safely, often requires a change from the indoor, everyday safety methods that you’re used to, which could turn a fun occasion into a terrible memory.   

“The biggest difference between cooking indoors and outdoors, the outside you have the hotter summer temperatures and you have sunlight. You also have additional contaminants that you’re not going to have in your house. Things like insects, pollen, dust, even depending on how windy it is, leaves, things like that. You want to make sure that you’re covering all your food when you’re not actively working or serving from it to prevent any of those contaminants or any insects from getting in there,” Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department Registered Environmental Health Specialist and Food Program Team Lead Michael Cruze said.

Foods should not be kept in direct sunlight nor left out longer than 4 hours. When using coolers, foods should be properly sealed and covered in ice instead of just resting on top of the ice.

“For cooking, ultimately your temperatures are still going to be the same for your minimum… minimum cooking temperatures,” Cruze said. “Make sure you’re relying on the internal temperatures for cooking as opposed to if you get used to cooking something on your stove or in your oven a certain way. You know, you get the same size chicken breast or the same burger patty all the time. It may look completely different being cooked on a grill or over an open flame. You may think that it’s done, it may not be, or you may not think it’s done and it’s overdone.”

When handled properly, cookout leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 7 days, however the old adage, when in doubt throw it out, remains a practical and safe suggestion.