Barbecue food hygiene gets a grilling!

It’s nearly summer, so if you love barbecuing it’s time to get your barbecue out of storage and ready for the summer season.

We spoke to Jonathan Crump from Crumps butchers in Ashwell, for some top barbecuing tips:

• “Beef and lamb whole cuts cook well on a barbecue as they can be cooked on the rare side, but chicken and pork must be cooked thoroughly to an internal temperature of 75°c – you can use a cooking thermometer to check the temperature of the meat. Never cook meat that has been minced rare e.g. beef burgers or pork sausages.

• Roast pork spare ribs slowly in an oven then bring out and finish them off on the barbecue.

• Many modern barbecues have lids so these cook the food more thoroughly, like an oven. They are great for cooking sausages, burgers, butterflied legs of lamb and spatchcocked chicken.

• If you are using a charcoal fire, which gives the food a nice woody, smoky flavour, make sure that you use enough coal to start with, as it does tend to burn out before the meat is cooked.

• Personally I like to use charcoal to cook and really like minted lamb cutlets, which we mature for a couple of weeks before we sell them. They cook quickly, stay juicy and are easy to eat using the bone to hold.”

Top tips for BBQ safety – follow the 4 C’s

1. Cleaning - cleaning gets rid of bacteria found on your hands, equipment and surfaces that may come into contact with food:

o Wash hands with hot water and soap before cooking and eating

o Don’t wash raw meat as it splashes bacteria onto hands and surrounding surfaces and is one of the easiest ways to get food poisoning

o Don’t mix utensils and serving dishes that have been used for raw and ready to eat food

2. Chilling and defrosting – chilling helps stop harmful bacteria from growing:

o Defrost food overnight in the fridge or use the defrost setting on a microwave

o Don’t defrost foods at room temperature as it enables bacteria to grow

o Store raw foods separately from ready-to-eat foods, covered on the bottom of your fridge

o Use a fridge thermometer to check the temperature is below 5°c as dials on fridges don’t always show you the right temperature

3. Cooking – food needs to be cooked at the right temperature and for the correct length of time to make sure that harmful bacteria are killed:

o If food is charred on the outside it doesn’t mean it is cooked on the inside

o Burgers should always be served well done, because when meat is minced to produce burgers, any harmful bacteria from the surface of the raw meat is spread throughout the burger

o Consider cooking chicken in the oven first, then giving it a final finish on the barbecue

4. Cross-contamination – when rawfood touches or drips onto ready-to-eat food, surfaces or utensils:

o Make sure you use different serving plates, food preparation surfaces and utensils for raw and cooked food

o Thoroughly wash your hands after touching raw meat and before handling cooked food

o Keep raw meat separate to ready to eat foods

NH Now Summer 2019