Keep Food Safe Blog 
Tackling Food Safety: Keeping Your Food Safe on Game Day
Super Bowl Sunday is a great American tradition, and a great way to bring together the three Fs: football, friends, and food. Super Bowl Sunday is also the second biggest day to consume food in the United States, only after Thanksgiving.
One of the most popular ways to celebrate is by inviting family and friends to enjoy a buffet. But if cold foods are left out of refrigeration and hot foods sit cooling for too long, you may be leaving the door open for some other, unwanted, guests – bacteria that can cause food poisoning.
Certain foods left at room temperature for more than two hours enter the so called "Danger Zone," between 40°F and 140°F. The "Danger Zone" is the perfect environment for harmful bacteria to grow and multiply. Because the game itself takes about four hours and Super Bowl parties can last for several hours longer it’s important to pay special attention to this on game day.
A lot of food combined with a lot of people who are focused on the big game creates a significant risk of food poisoning – so there’s no better time to pullout the food safety playbook and Check Your Steps.
Always wash your hands before and after handling food. (clean)
Your jersey may have grass stains from the impromptu game in the backyard, but be sure to keep your kitchen, dishes and utensils clean by washing them with hot, soapy water.
Keep raw meat and poultry apart from cooked foods. (separate)
Avoid an offsides penalty. Always serve food on clean plates — not any that previously held raw meat and poultry. Bacteria which may have been present in raw meat juices can cross- contaminate the cooked food to be served.
Cook foods thoroughly to safe minimum internal temperatures. (cook)
- Use a food thermometer to make sure that meat and poultry are safely cooked.
- Divide cooked foods into shallow containers to store in the refrigerator or freezer until serving. This encourages rapid, even cooling. Reheat hot foods to 165 °F after halftime.
- Arrange and serve food on several small platters rather than on one large platter. Keep the rest of the food hot in the oven (set at 200-250 °F) or cold in the refrigerator until serving time. This way, foods will be held at a safe temperature for a longer period of time.
- Replace empty platters rather than adding fresh food to a dish that already had food in it. Many people's hands may have been taking food from the dish, which has also been sitting out at room temperature.
Keep cold foods at 40 °F or colder. (chill)
Keep foods cold by nesting dishes in bowls of ice. Otherwise, use small serving trays and replace them. Remember to refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours.
For more information, view our Parties and Large Groups general information page.
If you have other food safety questions, please feel free to contact us at the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline (1-888-674-6854 toll-free) or online at AskKaren.gov (English or Spanish)
Please continue the discussion on our Facebook page.
Enjoy the game!
Resolve to Be Food Safe in 2013
One in six Americans is affected by food poisoning each year, resulting in an estimated 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 preventable deaths.
In most people the symptoms of food poisoning, or foodborne illness, usually aren’t long-lasting and typically go away without medical treatment. But foodborne illness can be severe, even life-threatening, especially for those most at risk such as older adults, infants, pregnant women, and those with weakened their immune systems.
It is up to all of us to do our part to make food safety a priority, and help prevent forborne illness – for ourselves and for our loved ones. So this year as you are making plans and setting goals for the New Year, remember to Resolve to Be Food Safe in 2013.
Here are four easy-to-stick-to New Year’s resolutions to get you started
Resolve to wash your hands before, during and after handling food. (clean)
Handwashing has the potential to save more lives than any single medical intervention. Wet your hands with clean running water, apply soap, lather and scrub your hands well for at least 20 seconds, and air dry or use a clean paper towel.
Resolve to use two cutting boards to help avoid cross-contamination. (separate)
Use one for foods that will be cooked, such as meat, poultry, and seafood, and the other for foods like fruits and vegetables that will be eaten raw. That avoids contamination of the raw foods by the juices from the ones to be cooked.
Resolve to get a food thermometer, if you don’t have one. (cook)
Only a food thermometer can make sure meat, poultry, fish, and casseroles are cooked to a safe internal temperature—hot enough to kill any germs that may be present.
Resolve to use an appliance thermometer to be sure your refrigerator is at or below 40ºF. (chill)
Bacteria multiply rapidly between 40ºF and 140ºF. The more bacteria, the more likely someone will get sick. Most refrigerators have just a colder/warmer adjustment, so the only way to know the temperature is to put a thermometer inside. And it’s a good idea to put one in the freezer to be sure the temperature is 0ºF or below.
For more information on how to keep food safe in the New Year, check out these resources:
- Long-Term Effects of Food Poisoning
- Types of Food Thermometers
- Separate, Don’t Cross-Contaminate
- Safe Food Handling: What You Need to Know
- CDC Vital Signs, Making Food Safer to Eat
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at the Hotline (1-888-674-6854 toll-free) or online at AskKaren.gov.
Reusable Grocery Bags: Keep ‘Em Clean While Going Green
The trend of swapping disposable grocery bags for cloth and plastic-lined reusable bags has become an increasingly popular “green” alternative. Reusable bags reduce waste, but how safe are they for our health?
The fabric or materials in reusable grocery bags can get contaminated with germs like Salmonella or E. coli from food or other items. These germs could then cross-contaminate other food or items we carry in the reusable bag and make us sick.
If you use reusable grocery bags, here are some simple steps that you can follow to reduce cross-contamination and keep yourself and your family safe from germs.
Wash reusable grocery bags often.
- Cloth reusable bags should be washed in a washing machine using laundry detergent and dried in the dryer or air-dried.
- Plastic-lined reusable bags should be scrubbed using hot water and soap and air-dried.
- Check that both cloth and plastic-lined reusable bags are completely dry before storing them.
Always put raw meats into a disposable plastic bag before putting them in a reusable bag.
- A disposable plastic bag helps contain any juices that drip off of raw meat packages, which can touch other foods and contaminate them. Disposable plastic bags are usually available in the raw meat or produce areas of your store.
- Throw away disposable plastic bags used for raw meat immediately after use. Never reuse bags that contained raw meat or poultry.
Keep meats, fresh produce, and ready-to-eat foods separated.
- Use separate bags dedicated for meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, and ready-to-eat foods. It’s also a good idea to keep these foods separated in your shopping cart, at the checkout line on the conveyor belt, and at home. This will help reduce cross-contamination.
- Remember that cold food needs to be refrigerated within two hours of leaving the store or market. Cold food should be refrigerated within one hour when temperatures outside are above 90 degrees.
Store reusable bags at home in a cool, dry place, not in the car.
- Store reusable bags in a cool, dry place, such as in your home or in the garage. Higher temperatures, like those inside of a car or a car’s trunk, can cause germs like Salmonella bacteria to grow faster.
Do not use reusable grocery bags for other purposes.
- Bags used for groceries should be used only for food. Don’t carry items such as baby bottles, toys, gym clothes, and other items in the same reusable bags that you take to the grocery store.
These simple steps will help you to reduce cross-contamination, and help keep you and your family safe from harmful bacteria.
Questions?
- Call the Hotline toll-free at 1-888-674-6854.
- Visit us online at AskKaren.gov (PregunteleaKaren.gov for questions in Spanish).
Comments?
- Please continue the discussion on our FoodSafety.gov Facebook page.
