How to Enjoy Barbecues Without Problems

Although most barbecue safety tips are simple common sense, people still suffer food poisoning and people still get burned, so there is obviously still a need for good safety advice during the barbecue season - which for many communities is all year round!

Many of the health problems associated with Barbecues are due to a failure in separating raw meats from food ready to eat, while others are related to insufficient cooking and also to the safety of the equipment itself.

The tips below are offered in three principal sections: Food Safety, Personal Safety and Child Safety, and although the overlap between them will be minimized, there cannot be too much repetition where safety is involved.

A. BARBECUE SAFETY : FOOD

1) Personal Hygiene

It is important that you wash your hands both before and after touching food. If you get into that habit, you won't have to worry about whether it is cooked food or uncooked - get into the habit and that's one problem taken care of. Many Barbecue health problems are caused by a failure of people involved in the cooking or serving to wash your hands.

Uncooked foods, particularly meats, can contain large colonies of surface bacteria, and by touching these and then touching foods ready to serve, you will be passing on potential infection.

2) Separation of Uncooked Foods

The following barbecue safety tips are predominantly focused on the separation of food ready to eat from uncooked meats that will likely contain bacteria. The most dangerous of the common bacteria are Salmonella, E.coli and Campylobacter.

• Hands must be washed both before touching cooked meats and after touching raw meats. Raw meat can contain bacterial colonies that can be transferred to your hands, and from there to cooked meats and salad vegetables and fruits.

• Raw and cooked meats should be separated during storage, as should the utensils used with them.

• Raw and cooked meats, or other foods ready to eat, should never come into contact with each other during the barbecue, and neither should the utensils, crockery or flatware used with them.

• If a marinade or sauce has been used on raw meat, the excess should never be applied to cooked food.

Food storage is very important, particularly with barbecues which tend to be commonly held as social occasions in summer and other periods of hot weather. Bacteria proliferate during ambient conditions in spring and summer, and steps should be taken to avoid the unwelcome effects of this.

3) Keep Your Food Cold
All barbecue safety tips you find online will stress the importance of keeping food cold, and that no food should be left in the sun or unrefrigerated for more than a maximum of two hours. If food is cold, surface bacteria cannot reproduce, so cooling and isolation until cooking are the two major means of preventing illness after eating barbecued food.

The official line on barbecue safety tips from the FSA (Food Standards Agency) is that you should cook your food indoors in a regular oven, where temperatures and cooking times can be set accurately, and then finish it off on the barbecue where you can add the smoked flavor using apple wood or pecan chips and also add your sauces or bastes to provide added flavor. That seems to take the fun out of it, so stick to the Barbecue safety tips here and you should be OK.

4) Thorough Cooking is Essential

The one major problem with barbecue safety is that of undercooked food, and also transferring bacteria from uncooked food to cooked foods that are ready for serving. One of the most important barbecue safety tips is to make sure that this type of cross-contamination cannot occur.

Most bacteria on uncooked foods sit on the surface, and cooking tends to kill them. Rare or blue steaks are generally safe to eat, because even with these, the surface bacteria have been destroyed when the surfaces is seared by a hot grill.

However, foods that tend to contain internal bacterial colonies, such as chicken and other fowl, must be cooked right through, and cannot be eaten 'rare'. Nor should frozen foods be cooked on a barbeque. One of the more important barbecue safety tips is to defrost food before cooking it, or it may appear burnt on the outside, but still be raw inside.

Make sure that your food is thoroughly cooked: beef and lamb can be pink when cut, but with chicken the juices should run out clear.

B. PERSONAL BARBECUE SAFETY

Personal safety is just as important as food safety: sure, your food might be safe to eat, but what if you get a serious burn that forces you to spend the day in hospital while everybody else is having a great time? Here are some barbecue safety tips that relate to your equipment:

-Make sure your barbecue is well separated from trees, shrubs or any other inflammables.

-Have a bucket of water, or preferable sand, available by the barbecue in case of fire. A fire blanket would also be useful in case anybody's clothes caught fire - particularly if they were trying to light the charcoal with accelerant such as petrol or lighter fuel (neither is recommended).

-Never use petrol or any other highly flammable liquid to light a barbeque.

-Never cover the base with more than 2 inches of charcoal.

-With gas Barbecue, always change cylinders outdoors, and always make sure the valve is turned off before changing.

-Always use long-handled tools and never wear loose clothing, particularly loose sleeves that can catch alight.

-Have some form of wind-break handy in case a sudden storm blows the coals out of the pan.

C. CHILD BARBECUE SAFETY

Children love barbecues and because of that they can tend to put themselves at risk without adequate adult supervision. To a child, a BBQ is a wonderful thing and they love the food - given half a chance they will get involved in the cooking.

So, you should never leave a child unsupervised because they will always want to know what is going on. They will tend to hang around the cooking area, watching and waiting for the food to be ready. Explain the dangers and risks to them, and preferably have an area well away from the barbecue for them to play under the supervision of an adult. They will love the food because it is in a different setting to normal, but protect them from the dangers of a Barbecue - modern kids may not be familiar with the hazards of an open fire.

By following these barbecue safety tips you should be able to enjoy your Barbecue without any mishaps - either from inadequate cooking or from a personal safety aspect. Barbecues are meant to be enjoyed, so go ahead and enjoy yours, knowing that you have done all you can do to keep it safe for everybody - the cooks, the guests and the children.