What are the rules of the tailgating food safety game?
Keep it clean
Over half of all foodborne illness is caused by unclean hands. The best option is washing hands with soap and warm water for 20 seconds before and after handling food.
Bring water for handwashing, if none will be available at the site. Include liquid hand soap and paper towels with handwashing supplies.
Pack disposable hand and kitchen wipes, as a cleaning alternative.
Keep cold foods cold
Use an insulated cooler with sufficient ice or ice packs to keep the food at 40 degrees F or colder.
Pack the cooler last, taking food directly from the freezer and refrigerator.
Securely contain raw meat and poultry to prevent the raw juices from contaminating ready-to-eat foods such as sandwiches and salads.
A cooler becomes a portable refrigerator; a temperature of 40 degrees F or colder should be maintained. This can be determined by placing a refrigerator freezer thermometer in the cooler.
Bring a separate cooler for beverages. Frequent opening lowers the internal temperature of the cooler and can put food at risk of being in the temperature danger zone.
The temperature “danger zone” is 40-140 degrees F. Bacteria multiply quickly on perishable foods. Foods in the temperature danger zone for 2 or more hours are unsafe to eat and should be thrown out. If it is 90 degrees F or higher outside, food should be thrown out after 1 hour.
Keep hot foods hot
To keep home-prepared foods like sloppy Joe or chili hot, insulated thermos containers work well. Fill the container with boiling water, let it stand for a few minutes, empty it, and fill it with hot food.
If electricity is available on-site or you have an auto converter, slow cookers are an option for keeping hot foods hot. To retain heat, keep the cover on the slow cooker until serving.
Hot foods should be held at 140 degrees F or above. Use a food thermometer to check the temperature.