a time for family and friends to gather, socialize and have fun.

The following tips can help keep your picnics and meals away from home as safe as possible.

1. Pack raw poultry in a sealed container or bag in a cooler with ice or cold packs so that the temperature stays below 40°F. Keep the poultry at the bottom of the cooler so that its juices do not leak onto other foods.
2. Keep uncooked poultry and meats in a cooler until ready to cook.
3. At very warm temperatures, cooked foods should be kept out for no longer than 1 hour. Keeping cooked leftovers out may be risky because the food may have been exposed to flies, dirty hands, and extended warm temperatures.
4. When bringing a bag lunch, wrap food well and keep them either cold with a freezer pack or frozen juice carton, or hot in an insulated container.
5. Keep cooler and lunch bags in the shade.

Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs should never be eaten raw.

These foods should be maintained in a refrigerator at a temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit and cooked thoroughly before eating. A cooking temperature of 160 degrees is advised. When cooking, use a meat thermometer or follow these tips:

Poultry: Cook it until the meat is white, and don’t eat it if you see blood or pink meat.

Fish: Cook until it flakes easily and is no longer translucent in the center.

Eggs: Cook eggs and egg dishes thoroughly. Don’t even sample anything containing raw eggs
such as uncooked dough and cake batter.

Steaks: Can be safely cooked medium; that’s because harmful bacteria in beef are found on
the surface of the steak, not in the interior like in ground meats.

Other tips for safe food handling, preparation and storage:

• Keep foods cold, below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, or hot, above 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Foods
  left out between those temperatures for more than two hours should be discarded.

• Keep cooked foods separate from raw foods. Cross-contamination of foods could occu if
  bacteria-harboring raw food comes in contact with cooked foods. Wash hands, utensils,
  cutting boards and countertops after preparing or handling raw meats.

• Avoid interrupted cooking. If you are partially cooking foods indoors to finish cooking on
  the grill, make sure the food goes directly from the oven to the hot grill. Don’t let the
  food stand partially cooked for any period of time.

• Store leftovers in separate containers and refrigerate.