This time of year a lot of us will be turning to the outdoor grill for cooking, especially with friends and family now that school is out for the Summer.
Lee Maddox: Grilling Season Safety Welcome and hello again everyone for Tennessee Home and Farm Radio, I'm Lee Maddox. You know this time of year a lot of us will be turning to the outdoor grill for cooking, especially with friends and family when school's out for the summer. Unfortunately, there's always instances of folks getting sick from foodborne illness and that's usually from ignoring some crucial food safety rules, USDA's Gary Crawford has more.
Gary Crawford: Many of us love summer and summertime outdoor grilling.
Meredith Carruthers: I do all of the grilling in our house; it's like one of my favorite things to do in the summer.
Gary Crawford: Meet Meredith Carruthers, food safety expert with the US Department of Agriculture's Meat and Poultry Hotline, the number of which we'll give you in a minute. She says they get calls all summer long for people wanting to make sure that they're doing all they can to grill things safely. So nobody gets sick. Meredith says there are two very important things that many people are either ignoring or just don't realize how important they are.
Meredith Carruthers: 97% of the time, people didn't either wash their hands at all or didn't do all five steps of hand washing for a full 20 seconds
Gary Crawford: This next fact very crucial for us cooking at home or on the grill.
Meredith Carruthers: Certain bacteria can live on surfaces for like 72 hours.
Gary Crawford: 3 days
Meredith Carruthers: So think about it. You're making dinner you touch chicken touched your spice containers without washing your hands and then in the morning, you're cooking eggs and you want to use the same spice in your eggs or something and then that gets all touched other places. So yeah, it's just it's kind of crazy what your hands can move around.
Gary Crawford: So Meredith says we need to wash our hands before we start any food prep and immediately after we've touched any raw meat or poultry product or the juices from them. Questions on this or any food safety subject, call the Meat and Poultry Hotline. Talk to an expert the number 1-888-MPHotline 1-888-MPHotline. Gary Crawford reporting for the US Department of Agriculture.
Lee Maddox: Another good reminder from food safety experts is to sanitize those cell phones for Tennessee Home and Farm Radio I'm Lee Maddox.
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