Top BBQ food safety tips

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At a barbecue, keeping hot food hot and cold food cold is essential to stop the growth of harmful bacteria that can cause food poisoning.

Bacteria grow fastest in temperatures between 5 °C and 63 °C. If food stays in this termperature range for too long, bacteria can multiply quickly to unsafe levels - even if the food looks and smells fine.

• Hot food, like cooked meats, should be kept at 63°C or above to stop bacteria from growing. Don’t leave cooked meat sitting out. If you are not going to eat it immediately, keep it on the edge of the grill where it stays hot.
• Cold food, like salads, desserts or dips, should be kept at 5°C or below to slow or stop bacterial growth. Keep it in the fridge until you're ready to eat it, or chilled in a cool box with ice packs.

Before you start

If this is your first time barbecuing this year, give your BBQ grill a good clean.

• Scrub the metal rack with an oven cleaner or a damp brush dipped in bread soda.
• Rinse it well with hot, soapy water afterwards.

Keep your cool

Food is out of your fridge for longer when you are cooking and eating outdoors. This can lead to harmful bacteria multiplying quickly.

• Keep chilled foods like salads, coleslaw and quiche in the fridge until you are going to eat them.

Before you start cooking

• Make sure frozen foods are fully thawed before you start cooking them. The best way to do this is to take them out of the freezer the night before and defrost them on the bottom shelf of the fridge.
• Keep foods you plan to cook chilled in the fridge or a cool box until you need it.
• Light your barbeque well in advance. For charcoal BBQs, the flames should have died down before you start cooking.

Looking for recipe inspiration? Here are our favourite BBQ recipes.

Prevent cross-contamination

• Wash your hands before and after handling food.
• Keep raw meat separate from cooked meat and ready-to-eat foods like dips.
• Always use separate utensils for handling raw and cooked meat when cooking.
• Never put cooked food on a dish that has been used for raw meat or poultry.
• Keep food covered whenever possible.

Cook with confidence

The most important part of barbecuing is making sure your food has been fully cooked. This is particularly important with:

• Poultry like chicken 
• Pork
• Minced and skewered meat like burgers, sausages and kebabs

While the outside of these meats may look cooked, the inside can still be raw.

How to know when your BBQ meat is cooked

• Use a meat thermometer. Check the temperature has reached 75°C to be sure your BBQ meat is fully cooked. To check, take the meat off the heat and insert a clean thermometer into the thickest part of the meat.
• Turn the food regularly and move it around the grill to ensure it is cooked evenly on all sides.
• If you don't have a meat thermometer, these For meats that need to be cooked all the way through, cut into the centre of them to check that:
  • They are piping hot all the way through
  • There is no pink meat left
  • The juices run clear

Steaks or whole joints of beef or lamb can be served rare as long as they are cooked on the outside. Harmful bacteria will only be on the outside.

Mind the marinade

• Make sure any marinade used on raw meat is not then used as a sauce to coat vegetables or cooked meat. It will contain raw meat bacteria!
• If you want to use marinade as a sauce, cook it in a saucepan and bring it to a rolling boil before serving it.

Using BBQ leftovers

• If you have any leftovers, don't leave them outside. They could be in the sun and insects and animals could get at them.
• As with all leftovers, cover them and allow them to cool down in a cool place (your kitchen).
• Put the BBQ leftovers in the fridge within two hours of cooking them and use them within three days.
• If you’re reheating BBQ leftovers, reheat them only once until piping hot.
• If in doubt, throw them out.