10 Wide Open Tips For Food Safety In The Great Outdoors

Hiking, camping, and boating are good activities for active people and families. However, if the food isn’t handled correctly, food-borne illness can be an unwelcome souvenir.
1. Choose foods that are light enough to carry in a backpack and that can be transported safely. Keep foods either hot or cold. Since it’s difficult to keep foods hot without a heat source, it’s best to transport chilled foods. Refrigerate or freeze the food overnight. What foods to bring? For a day hike, just about anything will do as long as you can fit it in your backpack and keep it cold — sandwiches, fried chicken, bread and cheese, and even salads — or choose non- perishable foods.
2. Keep everything clean. Remember to bring disposable wipes if you’re taking a day trip. (Water is too heavy to bring enough for cleaning dishes!)
3. It’s not a good idea to depend on fresh water from a lake or stream for drinking, no matter how clean it appears. Some pathogens thrive in remote mountain lakes or streams and there’s no way to know what might have fallen into the water upstream. Bring bottled or tap water for drinking. Always start out with a full water bottle and replenish your supply from tested public systems when possible. On long trips you can find water in streams, lakes, and springs, but be sure to purify any water from the wild, no matter how clean it appears.
4. If you’re backpacking for more than a day, the food situation gets a little more complicated. You can still bring cold foods for the first day, but you’ll have to pack shelf-stable items for the next day. Canned goods are safe, but heavy, so plan your menu carefully. Advances in food technology have produced relatively lightweight staples that don’t need refrigeration or careful packaging. For example:
==> peanut butter in plastic jars;
==> concentrated juice boxes;
==> canned tuna, ham, chicken, and beef;
==> dried noodles and soups;
==> beef jerky and other dried meats;
==> dehydrated foods;
==> dried fruits and nuts; and
==> powdered milk and fruit drinks.
5. If you’re cooking meat or poultry on a portable stove or over a fire, you’ll need a way to determine when it’s done and safe to eat. Color is not a reliable indicator of doneness, and it can be especially tricky to tell the color of a food if you’re cooking in a wooded area in the evening. It’s critical to use a food thermometer when cooking hamburgers. Ground beef may be contaminated with E. coli, a particularly dangerous strain of bacteria. Illnesses have occurred even when ground beef patties were cooked until there was no visible pink. The only way to insure that ground beef patties are safely cooked is to use a food thermometer, and cook the patty until it reaches 160В° F. Be sure to clean the thermometer between uses.
6. To keep foods cold, you’ll need a cold source. A block of ice keeps longer than ice cubes. Before leaving home, freeze clean, empty milk cartons filled with water to make blocks of ice, or use frozen gel-packs. Fill the cooler with cold or frozen foods. Pack foods in reverse order. First foods packed should be the last foods used. (There is one exception: pack raw meat or poultry below ready-to-eat foods to prevent raw meat or poultry juices from dripping on the other foods.)
7. Camping supply stores sell biodegradable camping soap in liquid and solid forms. But use it sparingly, and keep it out of rivers, lakes, streams, and springs, as it will pollute. If you use soap to clean your pots, wash the pots at the campsite, not at the water’s edge. Dump dirty water on dry ground, well away from fresh water. Some wilderness campers use baking soda to wash their utensils. Pack disposable wipes for hands and quick cleanups.
8. If you’re planning to fish, check with your fish and game agency or state health department to see where you can fish safely, then follow these guidelines for Finfish:
==> Scale, gut, and clean fish as soon as they’re caught.
==> Live fish can be kept on stringers or in live wells, as long as they have enough water and enough room to move and breathe.
==> Wrap fish, both whole and cleaned, in water-tight plastic and store on ice.
==> Keep 3 to 4 inches of ice on the bottom of the cooler. Alternate layers of fish and ice.
==> Store cooler out of the sun and cover with a blanket.
==> Once home, eat fresh fish within 1 to 2 days or freeze them. For top quality, use frozen fish within 3 to 6 months.
9. If using a cooler, leftover food is safe only if the cooler still has ice in it. Otherwise discard leftover food.
10. Whether in the wild or on the high seas, protect yourself and your family by washing your hands before and after handling food.

Meal Planning Help: Meal One

It’s nice when I find a meal where the foods compliment each other because it simplifies my life by knowing what to serve with what. Of course I don’t have to stick to any one meal plan; I can mix and match the main dishes and sides, but a lot of the time I’m in a hurry and don’t have a lot of time to think about it. I already have quite a few meals like this up my sleeve, but when I find a NEW one to add to my collection I get happy because it adds a little more variety to our meal choices. I’d like to share some of my new and old meal plans with you in hopes of helping you with the question `what do I make for dinner’. Here’s a meal that we have tried lately where the foods complimented each other really well. The food items aren’t necessarily new for us, but the flavors are and that makes a big difference.
The Meal:
Honey Barbecue Meatloaf Ranch Mashed Potatoes Your choice of vegetable (I just heat up a can of green beans or corn) Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Honey Cinnamon Butter
Make Ahead Tips: You can make the Honey Cinnamon Butter ahead of time and refrigerate until serving. You can also prepare the meat loaf and refrigerate it before baking.
The Recipes: Honey Barbecue Meat Loaf I’m not usually a meat loaf eater but I love this one and the family does too.
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 egg
1/2 cup oats — quick cooking
1/3 cup barbecue sauce — honey flavored
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon mustard — prepared
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 pound ground beef
ketchup
In a large bowl, stir together soup mix, egg, oats, barbecue sauce, onion, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic powder, salt, pepper and chili powder. Add beef and mix well. Press into an ungreased 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pan. Bake at 350* for 1 hour. Top with ketchup. Bake 5-10 minutes longer or until meat is no longer pink and a meat thermometer reads 160*. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
Ranch Mashed Potatoes Make mashed potatoes as you usually do but omit the butter and add ranch dressing and cream cheese to taste along with less milk than usual. Top with grated cheddar cheese.
Apple Cinnamon Muffins My kids love these (so do I) and there’s never any leftovers because of this. We also make them for breakfast. Be sure to try them with `Honey Cinnamon Butter’ (recipe follows).
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons applesauce
1 medium tart apple — peeled & grated
topping:
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter or margarine — cold
1/2-cup oatmeal — old fashioned
In a bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Add the egg, milk, oil and applesauce and stir until just moistened. Fold in apple. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. For topping, combine brown sugar and flour. Cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in oats. Sprinkle over muffins. Bake at 400* for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm with Honey Cinnamon Butter (recipe follows). Yield: 1 dozen.
Honey Cinnamon Butter
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl; beat until smooth. Serve with muffins, toast, bagels, French toast or pancakes. Refrigerate any leftovers. Yield: 1 1/3 cups. In the meantime, keep your eyes open for Meal Two.