Food safety probably isn’t at the top of your list when you’re preparing for a summer picnic or barbecue.

But each year, 76 million Americans become ill and 5,000 deaths occur due to food poisoning, according to the CDC, so knowing how to prevent this potentially dangerous condition is important.

Following these precautions can keep you and your food safe.

Wash Your Hands
Washing your hands before and after preparing food is a no-brainer, and it eliminates one of the most common causes of food contamination.

Warm water and soap work best, but if you’re outside with no source of clean water, you can use antibacterial hand wipes or gels.

Wash Your Utensils
Before heading outdoors to cook, make sure all cooking utensils, dishes, and cutting boards are clean. If you’re not sure if your grill tongs were washed thoroughly after the last time you used them, wash them again in hot soapy water or send them through the dishwasher.

Sanitize your cutting boards with chlorine bleach, and replace them if the surfaces become difficult to clean. Consider using one cutting board for raw meat and others for raw vegetables and fruit.

Be Careful with Raw Meat
Cross contamination of raw meat juices with other foods is one of the primary causes of food poisoning. To keep this from happening, make sure raw meat, poultry, and fish and their juices never come in contact with other foods.

If you’re preparing any kind of meat or eggs, be sure they are cooked thoroughly. Wash all utensils, cutting boards, dishes, and tabletops that come into contact with raw meat or poultry. Be sure not to place cooked meat or poultry back onto the platter or dish they were marinated in, and don’t use the fork you used to turn marinating meat or poultry to stir another food.

Keep Food Cold
Store perishable food in a cooler surrounded by ice. Keep raw meat and poultry separate from other foods in the cooler, or better yet, keep them in a separate cooler. Marinate foods in the cooler or refrigerator.

Raw meat, poultry, and seafood should be cooked immediately after being removed from the cooler. And do not eat cooked meat, poultry, fish, or anything made with mayonnaise that has been unrefrigerated for two hours or more.

Cook Meat Thoroughly
Undercooked chicken and hamburgers are common causes of food poisoning. Before serving chicken or pork, be sure the juices run clear and the meat is white, not pink; cook hamburgers until brown in the middle; hot dogs should be hot in the center.

Food safety is mostly common sense. Being careful about cleanliness and refrigeration is your best defense.

For more information, visit the Centers for Disease Control at www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/food/.

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