Outdoor Refrigerators Help With Food Safety

Posted on September 10, 2009 - Filed Under Technology

Many people are grilling outdoors more and more these days. Whenever one is preparing food, especially meat and poultry, it is important to follow safe procedures as far as the preparation, the cooking, the storage and the reheating, as food borne illness is quite common when the weather outside begins to heat up. In an outdoor kitchen, these steps can be followed more closely as the food is not being transported in and out the kitchen door. It is possible to build a gourmet outdoor kitchen, complete with gas grills fixed with side burners, roasters, smokers as well as the very convenient outdoor refrigerators. This is perfect for marinating the food, as food should always be kept in the refrigerator during this step of the preparation of a backyard barbecue, and one can go straight from the refrigerator to the grill without the possibly dangerous steps in between.

When one is grilling outside, particularly for a party, it is easy to become side-tracked…say set the uncooked food down on the counter for a bit, or to not be diligent enough transported the cooked food versus the raw food. However, with the refrigerator right there, these issues become resolved allowing one to bring the food straight from the cold to the heat of the grill. When one chooses to microwave the food, either to thaw it or to pre-cook it in order to reduce grilling time, again, the meat and poultry should go directly from the micro-wave to the hot grill. The problem is that bacteria thrives in medium temperatures, and this is the kind of bacteria that causes some pretty horrible cases of salmonella poisoning.

Food poisoning is a terrible experience to go through and can become quite serious. The thing is, that it is so very easy to prevent. There are minimum temperatures that must reached for each cut of meat in order for that bacteria to be destroyed. It is always wise to have a food thermometer handy, as when grilling the outside may become golden brown very quickly, leaving the inside still not thoroughly cooked. For hamburgers and pork that temperature should be at 160 degrees. And chicken or other poultry should be cooked to a minimum of 165 degrees, while all other cuts of meat including roasts, lamb and steaks should reach 145. And while re-heating all cooked meats, one should make certain that they are heated to 165. The outdoor refrigerators also come in handy for the storage of leftovers, as they should be placed into the fridge directly and not allowed to set on the counter tops, as once they start to cool, the temperature becomes medium leaving it just right for the multiplication of bacteria.

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