The wonderful recipe for food poisoning!

How often when you hold a barbecue do you end up cooking in cramped conditions with few facilities? In addition there is often only one set of tongs, poor light and a restless queue of hungry people demanding food! All this adds up to a wonderful recipe for food poisoning!

However, barbecues can be safe and highly successful events providing a few simple rules are followed.

Ten top tips for successful barbecuing.

1. Ensure all meat, especially chicken, is thoroughly defrosted, except where the manufacturers instructions say otherwise. For example some burgers may be cooked from frozen.
   
2. Keep food cold in the fridge until ready to use.
   
3. Wash your hands thoroughly, using hot water and soap, before and after handling raw meat.
   
4. Always use different tongs or forks for handling raw and cooked food.
   
5. Make sure that chopping boards, knives and any other equipment that has been used to prepare raw meat is washed in hot water and detergent, and is then disinfected before being used with other foods.
   
6. Cook all meat thoroughly until the juices run clear and there are no pink bits - never serve rare burgers, or undercooked chicken or sausages.
   
7. Only use small pieces of chicken on skewers or fillets, for example, on the barbecue. Chicken on the bone such as drumsticks, should be thoroughly cooked in the oven first and transferred to the barbecue for crisping.
   
8. Never put cooked meats back onto the same plate or dish where you have had raw meat.
   
9. Don’t add sauce or marinade to cooked food if it has already had raw meat in it.
   
10. Items such as steaks, chops or similar whole pieces of beef or lamb may be served rare, as long as all the outside surfaces are well browned.

Happy barbecuing.

For food safety information or advice please call the food safety group on 01582 510330 or fill in the enquiry form below.

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