This week, families around Northern Illinois and across the country gathered to celebrate Independence Day. For many people, such celebrations include backyard cookouts with massive spreads of delicious food of all types.

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to attend a Fourth of July cookout and then come home feeling a bit unwell. Before long, you might feel quite ill and have symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. You might even recognize the situation as attributable to something you ate, but the term “food poisoning” might feel like a stretch. However, the reality is that if something you ate made you sick and food allergies are not to blame, there is a good chance that you are, in fact, suffering from food poisoning.

Potential Liability for the Host

Over the last few weeks, posts on this blog have offered some summer cookout safety tips so that those who host backyard meals can help prevent their guests from getting sick. However, foodborne illnesses are still possible at summer cookouts. The first potential source of liability for summer cookout food poisoning is the person who hosts the get-together.

Over the last couple of blog posts, we have talked about some of the ways to keep your guests from contracting foodborne illnesses during your summer cookouts. Previously, we have discussed maintaining a clean grill and proper handling procedures for meats, chicken, and seafood. While grilling is a big part of most summer cookouts, there is often a variety of other foods that help to complete a backyard meal. With several months of warm weather — and numerous opportunities for cookouts — still to go this year, it is time to talk about keeping the side dishes safe as well.

Maintaining Safe Temperatures

Most backyard barbecues are more or less buffet-style meals, especially those that involve larger numbers of guests. The most basic food safety rule for buffet-style meals is to keep foods hot if they are supposed to be hot and cold if they are supposed to be cold. Hot means above 140° F, and cold means below 40° F. The “danger zone” for food safety is between these temperatures, and food should not be left in the danger zone for longer than two hours. If the outdoor temperature is above 90° F, food should not be in the danger zone for longer than one hour. Dangerous bacteria can multiply very quickly in the danger zone.

Here are a few tips for keeping food safe:

If you are the type of person who plays “fast and loose” with food safety—maybe, you are willing to eat those deviled eggs that have been sitting on the buffet table all day—there is a good chance you had to deal with food poisoning occasionally. And, you might not have even recognized your issues as food poisoning, as some cases can be much milder than others.

Most of us generally understand that improper food handling and storage temperatures can allow the pathogens that cause foodborne illness to contaminate our food. But what if someone else in your household ate contaminated food and you did not? Is it possible to contract a foodborne illness from another person? The answer, unfortunately, is yes.

How Food Poisoning Can Be Spread

There are two basic ways in which food poisoning spreads from person to person. The first is through direct exposure to the bodily fluids of an infected person. For example, if your spouse is suffering from a foodborne illness caused by norovirus, the virus is likely to be present in his or her vomit or diarrhea. This means you need to be extra careful as you help care for your spouse and to take all proper precautions to avoid exposure to the pathogen.

A couple of weeks ago, we talked a little bit about how a clean grill is very important in preventing food poisoning at your summer cookouts. With Memorial Day fast approaching—the holiday that many observe as the semi-official start of summer—more and more people will be hosting barbecues and cooking out on the grill again. While a clean grill is a great start, there are other steps that you should be taking to ensure that your food is safe to eat.

Guidelines for Safe Grilling

Whether you are having dozens of people over for a party or simply preparing dinner for your family, it is critical to handle meat, chicken, and seafood properly, or you run the risk of making people very sick. With this in mind, let’s take a look at some tips from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the safe handling of grilled proteins.

Separate raw proteins – Food safety begins at the grocery store. When you are shopping, be sure to grab meat or seafood last so that products can stay refrigerated longer. Then, separate them from the other items in your cart and bags. It is also a good idea to put raw meat or poultry in individual bags to prevent cross-contamination.

The calendar has flipped over to May, which means that outdoor grilling season is fast approaching for residents of Northern Illinois. Whether you consider yourself a beginner with a propane grill, a master of the charcoal grill, or a barbecue pit boss, there is nothing quite like meat—and veggies or other sides—that has been grilled to perfection. However, food cooked on the grill could be contaminated with dangerous bacteria if the grill is not maintained properly. Today, we will look at some simple steps you can take to ensure that your food is both delicious and safe for your family and guests to eat.

A Dirty Grill Can Harbor Illness-Causing Bacteria

Whether you use your grill just about every night or only on special occasions, it is critical to maintain and clean the grill grates on a regular basis. Whenever you cook on a grill, there are inevitably bits of food that remain stuck to the grill grates—even if you cannot see them. These food particles are likely to attract insects, birds, and other animals, which can introduce untold amounts of bacteria—and even waste—to the surface of the grill. Even without bugs or birds, the food itself can become contaminated with bacteria as the grill sits outside in the sun.

With this in mind, setting the steak for tonight’s dinner on top of the remnants of the chicken from last night could lead to your steak becoming contaminated with bacteria that could cause foodborne illnesses. In fact, food poisoning cases tend to spike in the summertime, partly due to the increase in grilling outdoors, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).