How can I make sure food gets cooked properly on the barbecue?
Careful handling and cooking of barbecue foods is so important to help prevent food poisoning and serious illness. Start by washing your hands before handling food and wash all salad items and vegetables. Ensure meat such as chicken, sausages and burgers are cooked thoroughly throughout, not just on the outside. Once the meat is cooked, make sure that you keep it separate from uncooked meat so serve it on a clean plate. If you have marinated the meat and fish before cooking them and have marinade left over then throw the marinade away and consider making less of it next time. This may sound a little wasteful, but left over marinade can harbour bugs from the raw meat and these can be transferred if you use it again. Keep desserts and cream to put on barbecued fruits and so on chilled in the fridge until you need to serve them. If there are any left over, don’t leave them out ‘in case someone wants seconds’ – pop them straight back into the fridge and keep them cool until next time.
