Barbecue chefs are being urged to
check meat and fish is cooked thoroughly to prevent outbreaks of
food poisoning this summer.
Food safety experts say a sausage or chicken
drumstick may look cooked on the outside – but inside it may still
be pink and partly raw.
And barbecues are full of meats that require
additional cooking such as chicken drumsticks, kebabs, sausages and
burgers which contain bacteria on the inside as well as the
outside. This means they are more likely to cause food
poisoning such as campylobacter, salmonella or E.Coli 0157 if not
thoroughly cooked
Hambleton and Richmondshire District Council’s
environmental health team has produced a checklist of simple
steps:
- wait until charcoal is glowing red with a
powdery grey surface before starting to cook
- make sure frozen food is thawed before starting to cook
- turn the food regularly and move it around the barbecue to cook
evenly
- check the food is piping hot all the way through - cut sausages
open
- make sure there is no pink meat left in poultry, pork, burgers,
sausages and kebabs
- make sure meat juices run clear.
- keep raw food away from cooked and ready to eat food
- keep raw meat and cooked meats on separate plates
- never wash raw meat or poultry
- wash hands after handling raw meat
- use separate utensils for raw and cooked foods
- do not put raw meat next to cooked or partially cooked
meat
- do not add sauce or marinade that has been used on raw food to
cooked food
- consider cooking food in the oven first and finishing it off on
the barbecue
- keep food chilled for as long as possible
More information can also be found in a new
leaflet produced by the councils – and on line at http://www.hambleton.gov.uk/ or
http://www.richmondshire.gov.uk/
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