By: Katie Burns   Date: 4/8/11

While it hasn’t always felt like it, Spring officially sprung a few weeks ago on March 20th.  As the seasons change and snow turns to rain and then to flowers, boots turn to sandals, and basketball turns to baseball; there is one thing that should stay consistent: safe food handling.  Read on for some things you can do to keep that spring in your step and avoid letting foodborne illness keep you down:

• CLEAN: Remember that spring cleaning should include the kitchen too!  In fact, it’s important to keep the kitchen clean all year round, as harmful bacteria can’t always been seen.  For more on kitchen cleaning, click here.
• SEPARATE: It’s not just Easter egg dye that you need to keep separated in the Spring, but ready-to-eat foods and raw meat, poultry and seafood should also be kept apart.  Keep them separate in your grocery cart, grocery bags, refrigerator, and especially when you are preparing foods to eat.  Use separate cutting boards, plates and utensils until your raw meat, poultry and seafood have been cooked to a safe internal temperature.
• COOK:  The weather is warming up, which means the cookouts and BBQs will be starting up any day now. While enjoying some time over the grill, remember that use of a food thermometer doesn’t make you a wimp, it keeps you safe!  Here is a list of the safe internal temperatures for some grill favorites!
• CHILL: The winter chill is on its way out, and people are grabbing their picnic baskets and heading to the park.  It’s important to remember, however, to keep your perishables in a cooler with a cold source, such as a freezer pack.  It’s also important to refrigerate or discard these perishables items within two hours of taking them out of the cooler.

My favorite thing about Spring may seem a little bizarre, but I love the rain and thunderstorms… perhaps due to my mid-Western childhood.  With these thunderstorms, however, comes another food safety concern: power outages! Here is a link to another blog I wrote about food safety during emergency situations.  It goes to show that food safety never goes out of season