Exciting? No. Captivating read? Afraid not. Important? Absolutely! What we’re talking about here is food safety. Preventing food borne illnesses. Especially in summer, when the weather is warm and conditions are ripe for trouble. While this may be stuff we’ve all heard before, it’s a good idea to refresh our memories. So picnic, cook out, shishk with your bob, and remember these tips from the Department of Public Health for a safe and healthy summer.

• Wash hands thoroughly with soap and warm water before handling any food and after handling raw poultry, meat, or eggs. Wash fresh fruit and vegetables thoroughly.
  
  
• Prevent cross contamination. Use separate cutting boards for raw meats and ready-to-eat foods like vegetables, fruits, and salads. Thoroughly scrub all utensils or cutting boards used for raw meat and poultry. Some cutting surfaces can harbor bacteria in their ridges. Use separate bowls for raw poultry, meat, or eggs to prevent them from coming in contact with foods served without cooking. Make sure to keep raw meat, fish, or poultry cold until it’s cooked, and ensure it doesn’t come in contact with ready-to-eat food (such as cheese, fruit, sliced onions, tomatoes, or bread). Also, never place cooked meats on the same plate that held raw meats.
  
  
• Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Don’t serve hot foods until they’re heated to between 140 and 165 degrees or higher. Don’t leave food unrefrigerated longer than two hours at a time, or the chances of bacterial growth increase. Store and serve cold foods at temperatures below 40 degrees. In other words, don’t let potentially hazardous foods reach that intermediate temperature at which microorganisms grow best-between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
  
  
• Take special care with potentially hazardous picnic foods. That includes any food that contains homemade mayonnaise or salad dressing, such as potato salad; deviled eggs; and egg, chicken, and tuna salads. Dishes requiring significant handling are at greater risk of harboring dangerous bacteria when allowed to reach intermediate temperatures. Sandwich meats and dairy products are two others to watch out for.
  
  
• Refrigerate these foods immediately after they’re prepared and until they’re served. Use insulated coolers with ice or cold packs to transport and store these foods. Make sure you evenly distribute ice packs in the cooler to ensure all food is being cooled. Place leftovers from potentially hazardous hot and cold foods in separate coolers on ice. Serve leftovers either very cold (right from the cooler) or very hot (reheated to 165 degrees or hotter).
  
  When running errands including grocery shopping, keep an insulated cooler with ice packs in the car. Use it to keep perishables cooled until you get home.

While you’re out, pick up these ingredients and whip up a batch of…

Lisa’s Veggie-Bean Salsa

Drain one can each: 
    
    Black beans
    White shoepeg corn
    Black-eyed peas

Chop: 

    1 red pepper
    1 orange or yellow pepper
    1 red onion
    3-4 Roma tomatoes
    1 bunch cilantro
    Jalepenos to taste
    Minced garlic to taste

Add: 

    Juice of 3 lemons. Salt to taste

Toss together and refrigerate overnight to let flavors mingle. TPW