Barbecue cooks must know the enemy of safe food

By JOE O'CONNELL, cbbqa past President
Updated May 17, 2002

Barbecue cooks should be familiar with food poisoning and its major causes.

Keeping food safe has been difficult historically

From earliest times, keeping food safe and wholesome has been a difficult task.  Romans brought winter ice down from the Alps and stored it in caves, so that it could be used during the hot summer to keep food from spoiling.

In 200 BC, there is a record that sauerkraut, which does not spoil for a long time, was used by camp cooks for the workmen on the Great Wall of China. 

By the Middle Ages, a great many smoking, salting, drying and preserving techniques had been perfected.  The Christmas fruitcake, studded with dried fruits and steeped in rum or brandy, is a present-day descendant of such techniques.  The rum or brandy retards mold growth and spoilage, and there are cases of well-tinned and brandied cakes which last decades.

Keeping food safe is simpler today

Modern refrigeration and cooking today make keeping food safe much simpler.

Government inspection and strict standards within the food industry make a decisive difference today.  Today, consumers enjoy the safest, most wholesome and most abundant food supply in history.

With respect to meat and poultry, federal and state inspectors oversee operations in packing and processing plants.  Inspectors check and recheck the safety and quality of meat and poultry from the time the animals arrive at the plant until the final product is ready for sale.

Safety requires constant care

Once food arrives in the kitchen at home,  it requires constant care to ensure safety.  But keeping food safe is not difficult, if the cook is vigilant.  There are now approximately two million cases of food poisoning in the U.S. each year, but the vast majority of these case occur at home and as a direct result of the cook's improper handing of food.

How food spoils

Every cook must have basic knowledge about the difference between food-spoiling bacteria, which cause food to spoil (to rot and turn bad) and food-poisoning bacteria, which cause sickness in humans.   

A major difference between the two types of organisms is the temperature range in which they thrive.  Food-spoiling organisms including many bacteria, yeasts and molds, which thrive at relatively low temperatures.  This is the reason that, even when food is refrigerated at temperatures below 40° F, these spoilage agents continue to reproduce, and the food spoils.

On the other hand, food-poisoning bacteria usually grow in the "danger zone", between 40° and 140° F, and they thrive at room temperature, between 60° and 90° F.  Because food-poisoning bacteria are so common in the environment, and because so many cooks routinely mishandle food, food-poisoning is very common.

Often, however, the causes of food poisoning are not obvious.  Most of the dangerous bacteria cannot be seen, smelled or tasted.  In fact, the vast majority of food poisoning results in such mild discomfort that the victims rarely recognize it as food poisoning.  The "24-hour flu" is more likely than not a case of food poisoning, not the influenza virus.

Therefore, knowledgeable cooks always handle food so that any poison-producing organisms cannot multiply enough to cause trouble.

Rules to prevent food poisoning

Food safety scientists recommend that cooks follow a few simple rules, which will prevent most food poisonings.

Before handling food, cooks should begin by thoroughly washing their hands with hot, soapy water.  Then they should dry their hands with paper towels and not with kitchen towels.

"Dirty" towels, sponges and cloth are ideal places for bacteria to grow, because, as is visible under a microscope, the "dirty" towels are actually covered with thousands of food particles contaminated with food-poisoning bacteria.  When a dirty towel is used to dry hands or to wipe a counter top, the food-poisoning bacteria moves from the towel to the hands and counter and then to the meat or other food.

After cleaning their hands, cooks should next clean their work areas and cutting boards.

Before beginning any food preparation, the cooks should then prepare the work areas and gather the spices and other ingredients which will be necessary.  Experienced cooks prepare and measure out all the ingredients before beginning the assembly, which takes less overall time and reduces the changes food-poisoning from cross contamination.

Only after these steps have been completed should cooks begin the handling and preparation of the meat and other food.

Keeping food in the danger zone for as little time as possible and keeping everything as clean as possible are the keys for reducing the risk of food poisoning.

Tips for barbecue cooks

Barbecue cooks face more risks than other cooks, whose food often goes from the refrigerator directly into a preheated oven or hot pan.  Barbecue occurs at relatively low temperatures (usually only a little higher than the boiling point of water, 212° F), which are closer to the danger zone.  In addition, barbecue cooks often operate outdoors, where risks are higher.  For example, barbecue cooks often use insulated gloves to handle meat, moving it into and out of the pit, so the gloves themselves become targets for the spread of food poisoning.

Therefore, barbecue cooks must understand how the food-poisoning organisms work and how to avoid risks, and then they must follow safe-handling procedures.  The risks are high, but avoiding the risks is not at all difficult.

Related information

• See the related Bibliography of Barbecue Health and Safety