Summer days in South Carolina mean lively outdoor parties with plenty of grilled food. Use these barbecue safety tips from Clemson University to ensure that your guests leave the celebration with nothing but happy memories.
- Buy it fresh: Select your meats from the back of the refrigerated case and from the bottom of the stack where it’s coldest. Refrigerate or freeze your meats as soon as you get home.
- Defrost carefully: To defrost, transfer your meats to your refrigerator at least 24 hours before you are ready to cook. If you precook meat before transferring it to the fire, be ready to place it on the grill immediately.
- Keep it cool: Keep all foods refrigerated until you’re ready to work with them, and marinate in the refrigerator, not on your countertop. If your recipe calls for basting while cooking, reserve a portion of the marinade before it touches any raw meat.
- No touching: Don’t add any more raw meat to the grill until you’ve removed all the cooked meat. Place a clean serving platter near the grill, and use a clean spatula or tongs to remove cooked foods.
- Serve safe: The best rule of thumb is to serve your hot foods hot and your cold foods cold so bacteria can’t get a toehold. Food should not be left out for more than two hours after cooking. Discard all items left out for more than one hour at temperatures above 90 degrees.