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Guide to Safe Handling of Ground Meat and Ground Poultry
First Thing, Be Cool!!
Ground meat and ground poultry are more perishable than most foods. In the danger zone between 40 degrees and 140 degrees F, bacteria can multiply rapidly. Since you can't see, smell, or taste bacteria, keep ground meats cold to keep them safe.
Safe Handling.
- Pack perishables in an ice chest if it will take you more than an hour to get home.
- Place ground meat and ground poultry in the refrigerator or freezer immediately.
- Defrost frozen ground meats in the refrigerator--never at room temperature
Safe Storage
- Set your refrigerator at 40 degrees F or colder and your freezer at 0 degrees F or colder.
Make it easy!
Devote a small section of one shelf to Bravo storage and use it consistently. We use a couple of inexpensive metal loaf pans from Ikea to keep our 2 lb. tubes of Bravo in. First we put the Bravo inside a one gallon zip lock bag to catch the juices. A clean pan is used when a new tube is defrosted and the old pan is always washed.
Keep it Clean!
Keep EVERYTHING clean -- hands, utensils, counters, cutting boards and sinks. Use an antibacterial cleaner on counters and inside refrigerator especially, and always wash hands thoroughly in hot soapy water both before and after handling raw meat.
- Don't let raw meat or poultry juices touch ready-to-eat foods either in the refrigerator or during preparation.
- Don't put cooked foods on the same plate that held raw meat or poultry.
- Wash utensils that have touched raw meat with hot, soapy water before using them for cooked meats.
- Wash counters, cutting. boards and other surfaces raw meats have touched. And don't forget to keep the inside of your refrigerator clean.
Source: Food Marketing Institute and American Meat Institute in cooperation with National Livestock and Meat Board, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Food and Drug Administration. Publication Number 458-016, October 1996
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