Stay safe during the summer grilling season. That’s today’s This Land of Ours.
With summer officially here, it’s that time again when a lot of us will be gathering around the grill. Millions of people get sick each year because of a lack of food safety while grilling, but you don’t have to be one of them. The USDA offers guidelines, such as using a thermometer to make sure meat is cooked to the proper temperature. But they also say cross-contamination can be a problem while grilling.
“Certain bacteria can live on surfaces for 72 hours. If you think about it, you’re making dinner, you touch chicken, touch your spice containers without washing your hands, and then in the morning you’re cooking eggs and you want to use the same spice in your eggs or something and then you touch other places,” Meredith Carothers, food safety expert with USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline, said in a USDA report. “It’s just crazy what your hands can move around.”
If you have questions as you’re grilling, you can reach an expert like Carothers by calling the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) or email MPHotline@usda.gov.
Listen to Sabrina Halvorson’s This Land of Ours program here.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.