Fourth Of July Barbecue Do's And Don'ts

As Americans once again celebrate their national Independence Day, just three days after Canadians celebrate Canada Day, tens of millions will be firing up the grills and stoking the barbecue pit for holiday meals. 

Every year in the USA alone, however, about 48 million people suffer food poisoning. Over 125,000 Americans have to be admitted to the hospital for food-related illnesses, and over 3,000 people die. The overwhelming majority of these cases occur during summer months, and on no single day are there more incidents of food-borne illness than the Fourth of July.

Don't become one of the estimated 2 million people who will suffer some kind of food-borne infection this Fourth of July holiday. Follow these 10 essential tips for outdoor food safety.

1. Recognize the symptoms of food poisoning

Eating microbially contamined food usually doesn't cause any symptoms for 8 to 48 hours. The most common problems are vomiting and diarrhea, sometimes simultaneously, but also:

• Abdominal pain,
• Fever,
• Joint pain,
• Bloody, mucous-y, or rice-like stool, or
• Bloating and gas.

Food poisoning symptoms may last up to two weeks. Painful bowel movements with blood and mucus in the stool may indicate a food-related prostate infection in men. 

2. Food-borne illnesses seldom strike just one person

Typically everyone who eats a contaminated food item will come down with symptoms. If you were the chef, it's responsible to let your guests know about the problem so they can take prophylactic measures.

3. Don't try to treat food poisoning with Paregoric or similar diarrhea medicines

Diarrhea, as odd as it may sound, is your friend when you have food poisoning. Diarrhea is the way your body expels the bacteria or other microorganisms that are causing gastric distress. If you succeed in stopping diarrhea by taking an over-the-counter product like Paregoric or Kaopectate, you will only prolong the time that the infection can stay in your system. It is especially important not to try to stop diarrhea that is causing bloody stools. This can be a sign of an invasive microorganism that can cause more problems than just gastrointestinal upset. See your doctor if you have blood in your stool after eating contaminated food.

4. Raw seafood can transmit norovirus even if it's been stored at the right temperature

It just takes a few (about seven) copies of the Norwalk virus (norovirus) to cause you to come down with really bad viral food poisoning really fast. Be absolutely sure that you wash your hands before and after handling raw sea food, and don't eat any raw seafood that isn't prepared under sanitary conditions. Hot peppers and lime juice actually do offer a minimum of protection against food-borne illnesses, but they aren't enough to make contaminated food absolutely safe.

5. Add nutmeg and oregano to your marinades of raw meat before barbecuing

The essential oils of nutmeg and oregano kill Yersinia enterocolitica and Listeria monocytogenes, two kinds of disease-causing bacteria that are relatively common in raw and undercooked chicken (or in the juices from raw chicken). 

Declare Independence From Food-Borne Illness

Essential tips for Fourth of July food safety continued:

6. Add red wine or thyme to your marinades for beef

If you are planning to grill a steak for your Fourth of July meal, particularly if you are planning to serve it rare, be sure to marinade it first. Both red wine and thyme kills Salmonella. They aren't "antiseptics," in that they would make your steak 100% safe for human consumption even if you chose to eat the meat raw, but they kill enough Salmonella bacteria that they are likely to reduce the number of disease-causing microbes enough that diners would avoid infection, if the meat is not cross-contaminated after it is cooked.

7. Precooking burgers for 60 seconds in the microwave before putting them on the grill reduces Salmonella contamination

Salmonella can't stand up to microwaving. It isn't necessary to do the entire cooking process in the microwave. Just 60 minutes is enough to significantly reduce Salmonella contamination. Microwaving only works on ground meat. On fillets and especially on thick steaks it has very little effect other than interfering with caramelization, char, and juiciness (in an undesirable way).

8. Broiling kills more disease-causing microbes than pan-frying or grilling

And using a meat tenderizer plus some kind of acid (lemon juice, vinegar in a marinade, or red wine) kills even more of the bacteria that can cause food poisoning.

9. Leave gathering wild mushrooms to the experts

Mushrooms can make a tasty addition to your Fourth of July grill, and there's no reason to worry about the safety of packaged mushrooms you buy at the market. Wild mushrooms you gather in the woods, however, are another story.  Of the 140,000 species of mushrooms that occur in the wild, only about 2,000 are safe for human consumption. Every year about 60,000 people get sick enough after eating wild mushrooms that they have to go to the emergency room, and about 60 people year per die after eating poison mushrooms, especially the death cap (especially Amanita muscaria or Amanita patherina) or black morels (Morchella angusticeps).

10. Be aware that not all food-borne illnesses show up in the digestive tract

Food-borne illnesses can manifest themselves as urinary tract infections, especially in children. If you are curious exactly how that can happen, the answer runs something like this. Uncooked or undercooked meat, fish, shellfish, or poultry is infected with a microorganism that can cause a urinary tract infection, such as E. coli. The germs gets on fingers, and fingers transfer the germ to the genitals. How can you prevent this kind of UTI? Wash hands before you go to the bathroom, as well as after.