Reminders for food safety on the Fourth of July

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.- If you are pulling out your grills for a Fourth of July cookout, there are a few things you may want to keep in mind.

Make sure your grill is clean before any cooking to avoid grease fires. Also, keep the grill away from any structures, like your house or car, as well as children at play.

To prevent bacterial cross-contamination, it is also important to use separate cutting boards and utensils for raw meats versus fully cooked or ready-to-eat food. Doctors also remind us to cook meat to a safe internal temperature.

Family medicine physician with Norton Healthcare, Dr. Destiny Etheridge, says, “We’re grilling now, right, make sure that we’re cooking foods to certain temperatures, we don’t really want to get any food poisoning on the fourth of July. So, just making sure we’re covering our food that needs to be refrigerated after a couple of hours, especially food that has dairy in it. I’m thinking potato salad, right? Those things we make sure that they get refrigerated, and they’re not sitting outside all day.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture emphasizes the two-hour rule. This means all perishable items should be refrigerated two hours after being taken off the grill, out of the oven or refrigerator.