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More Food Safety Pages - Check them out!
Buffet and Party Safety
Also includes what to do if your guests have been
delayed at least an hour
Food Safety
IF IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT! - If you have any
question in your mind about the freshness or safety of eating a food product,
throw it out. It is better to be safe than sorry!
Picnic Safety Tips
There
is nothing more American than the picnic. Picnics can take on many forms,
such as the community picnic, friends and neighbors, tailgate parties, or
ball games. There is also one sure thing at every picnic-lots of good food.
The important point is to have safe and healthy food, not food that can
cause food borne illness. Always prepare and store food properly.
Summer
Safety Tips
Summer is the time for barbecues and picnics. The biggest party crasher
at summer picnic and buffets is food borne bacteria. You can't see them,
you can't taste them - but you sure can feel them if illness occurs
hours or days later.
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Always wash your hands before and after handling food.
Keep your
kitchen, dishes, and utensils clean also. Always serve food on clean plates, not
those previously holding raw meat and poultry. Don't
cross-contaminate. Keep raw meat and poultry apart from cooked foods.
Arrange and
serve food on
several small platters rather than
on one large platter. Keep the rest of the food hot in the oven or cold
in the refrigerator until serving time. This way foods will be held at
safe temperatures for a longer time. Always replace empty platters
rather than adding fresh food to a dish that already had food on it.
Remember - many people's hands may have taken food from the dish, which
was also sitting at room temperature for awhile.
Food should
not sit at room temperature
for more than two hours. Keep track of
how long the foods have been sitting on the buffet table and discard
anything after two hours. If the buffet is held outside and the outside
temperature is above 85 degrees F, then the holding time is reduced to
one hour.
Leftovers
from the buffet -
discard any foods that sat for two hours
or more on the buffet table. Other leftovers can be
refrigerated or frozen in containers.
What to do if your guests
have been delayed at least one hour
 Just remember
the basic food safety rules:
Hot Foods - 140 degrees F. and above
Cold Foods - 40 degrees F. or below
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If you have
hot food/foods in the oven, put a
meat thermometer
in the thickest part of the meat or
center of your casserole. Adjust the oven temperature so that the food
stays at an internal temperature of 140 degrees F., or above. An oven
temperature of 200 to 250 degrees F. should be sufficient to hold the
food.
Cover the dishes or wrap with aluminum foil to prevent dryness.
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