A Guide to Food Safety
A Guide to Food Safety & Preparation for a Perfect Grilling Experience
Summer is here – it’s time to fire up the barbecue and get outdoors! Great food, great friends and a few drinks on these warm summer evenings is what grilling is all about!
However, nothing can ruin a barbecue faster than getting sick from food poisoning or cross-contamination. But there’s no need to worry, as we’ve prepared a fantastic guide to Food Safety and Preparation to help you keep your guests happy and healthy, as well as having the best and safest grilling experience this summer!
Safe Food Preparation
Wash your hands before handling food or use disposable nitrile gloves
Clean hands are an essential part of any food handling! Remember to change your gloves if you start handling a different type of meat and avoid wiping your hands on your clothes or apron, and instead use a clean towel or paper towel.
Avoid cross-contamination in the kitchen
Cross-contamination is the most common cause of food poisoning, and it happens when dangerous germs and bacteria are transferred from one type of food to another. To avoid it, prepare the raw meat first and then clean the entire area. Only move on to the next elements of the dish once you’ve cleaned the area where the raw meat was prepared.
Don’t leave meat out of the refrigerator for too long
Whilst it’s true that some meats need to come to room temperature before cooking, to make them juicier, it can also cause it to spoil if left too long. If you can, only take the meat out of the refrigerator shortly before preparing and grilling. This will produce the same results, but you’ll avoid spoiling the meat!
Keep The Grill Clean
Before you start grilling, you’ll need to burn the device and then wipe the grates with a stainless-steel bristled brush. If you’re seeing intense white smoke coming from your barbecue, this is a sign that there is still organic matter on the grill that needs to burn off, so make sure you do this first! Don’t forget to grease the grates when it’s clean and ready to go, too!
Prevent Cross-Contamination on Your Grill
To avoid cross-contamination of your grill, it’s essential to move the food between the individual elements of the grill, much like an assembly line. On one shelf, place the raw ingredients and meats that need to go on the grill, and move the cooked and grilled dishes to the other shelf, keeping them separated from one another. It’s also important to use separate tools and utensils for both the raw and cooked meats, to prevent the transfer of any bacteria.
Grilling Foods with Allergens
If someone in your family or friends is allergic to any of the ingredients on the menu, be sure to prepare a meal for them separately, or even at the very beginning, to avoid any potential cross contamination. Some allergies require more thorough cleaning between using allergenic ingredients, so it’s best to check with your guest first to see how to manage the grilling properly.
How Long to Cook Meat
Using a thermometer is the best way to keep an eye on your food and check the progress of your grilling, as well as making sure that it’s not undercooked. Here are the recommended temperatures from the Spanish Agency for Food Safety & Nutrition (AESAN) and the American Food Standards Agency on the time-temperature combinations necessary for the safe cooking of foods.
How to Serve Food Safely
When taking cooked food and dishes off the grill, they will start to release juices. It’s at this point that a cutting board with grooves will come in handy. The grooves around the edge of the board will catch the excess juices and fat and prevent the surface underneath from getting dirty and contaminated.
Most chopping boards are designed for preparing a meal rather than serving it, so a soft wood cutting board will absorb any liquids and can give off old and stale flavours, potentially spoiling the taste of the grilled foods you want to serve.
How to Reheat Food Safely
A Broil King gas barbecue will allow you to reheat food with ease. Whilst many people might want to use a microwave to reheat food, this can often result in soggy and inedible foods. By using the grill, you can ensure that your foods stay as delicious as they were when first cooked. When reheating food, it’s important that dishes must reach and maintain a temperature of 74℃ for a while or reach boiling point in the case of soups and sauces. Once the food has been reheated and served, it cannot be reheated again.
And there you have it, now you can enjoy safe and effective grilling from Broil King Spain and Portugal! Happy grilling!