BBQs and potato salad
Have you started to enjoy the fun foods of picnics and BBQs? Independence Day seems to be when my family feels summer is really here. Our grill was fired up yesterday and the freezer was stocked with popsicles. It’s always great to kick back and relax, but it’s also important to remember to keep foods fresh and safe from nasty things like salmonella and e coli.
Things to keep in mind while enjoying summer cookouts are:
• Keep raw meat and poultry separate from cooked or ready-to-eat foods.
• Minimize mayonnaise when you’ll be outside for long periods. I have stopped making potato salad with mayo and now use olive oil and lemon juice instead. It keeps much longer.
• Refrigerate any leftovers a.s.a.p., and never eat cooked food that has been out of the refrigerator longer than two hours.
If you’re pregnant, there are several more things you need to know, like avoiding soft cheeses, raw sprouts and unpasteurized juices, and limiting the amount of certain fish you eat. Be sure to read more about food-borne risks in pregnancy on our web site.
Happy summer!
July 9th, 2012 at 10:40 am
If you are worried at all about exposures during pregnancy (food, medicines, whatever) call the pregnancy riskline. It helped me a ton. It is a free service that helps you asses your risk after these exposures. 1-800-733-4727
And did I mention free?
July 10th, 2012 at 11:02 am
Hi,
As you mentioned the things to be avoided, why is unpasteurized juice not safe? Does that cover handmade lemonade?
July 10th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Fresh unpasteurized fruit and vegetable juices are loaded with vitamins. Unfortunately, they can carry disease-causing bacteria (such as Salmonella and E. coli), making them unsafe choices for pregnant women.
In healthy adults, Salmonella and E. coli infections generally cause diarrhea, nausea, abdominal cramping and fever that lasts for several days. Pregnant women can sometimes become seriously ill from these infections. Occasionally, a pregnant woman can pass a Salmonella or E. coli infection on to her fetus, who can develop diarrhea, fever and, less frequently, meningitis after birth.
For these reasons, a pregnant woman should drink only pasteurized juices. The FDA requires that packaged, unpasteurized juices carry a label stating that they are not pasteurized.