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Food Safety 101: USDA Offers Food Safety Tips For College Students
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Susan Conley (301) 504-9605
Steven Cohen (202) 720-9113
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24, 2005 - When students pack up for college, they make sure to take along the basics - TV, laptop,
MP3 player and cell phone. Many students will also arrive at school with a microwave oven, tabletop grill, mini-fridge
and toaster-oven in tow. Most students, however, don't know there are food safety considerations that need to be taken
into account when cooking with these appliances.
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Leftover pizza, fried chicken, Chinese food and other take-out foods should be refrigerated as soon as possible. Perishable food should never be out of refrigeration more than two hours. At room temperatures over 90 °F, discard after one hour.
Keep the refrigerator set at 40 °F or lower. Refrigerate leftovers in shallow containers. Wrap or cover the food. Cooked meat or poultry and leftover pizza is safe for 3 to 4 days, while luncheon meats and egg, tuna, and macaroni salads are safe for up to 3 to 5 days. Foods stored longer may begin to spoil or become unsafe to eat. Never taste a food to determine if it has spoiled.
Use microwave safe containers. Don't microwave in margarine tubs or other plastic containers intended for cold storage. Chemicals used in such plastics could transfer into the food when heated.
Always use a food thermometer to check internal temperatures. Cook hamburger and other ground meats (veal, lamb, and pork) to an internal temperature of 160 °F and ground poultry to 165 °F.
Beef, veal and lamb steaks and roasts may be cooked to 145 °F for medium rare. Whole poultry should be cooked to 180 °F as measured in the thigh; breast meat to 170 °F. All cuts of pork should reach 160 °F. Foods from the microwave should be steaming hot.
Use a thermometer when re-heating foods to ensure they reach 165 °F.
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"Students face many rigors while studying for a college education and they often eat whenever and wherever
it is convenient," said USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Richard Raymond. "But when it comes to
safely preparing meals, many college kids simply don't know what it takes to make the grade in food safety and far
too many could end up with a foodborne illness."
USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service offers tips to students and consumers on how to prevent foodborne illness. The
USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline regularly responds to calls from students with questions about how to safely cook and prepare
foods while away at school.
Here is a sampling of those questions:
Q. Several slices of pizza have been left out overnight, is the pizza still safe to eat?
A. No. Perishable food should never be away from refrigeration more than two hours. This is true even if
there are no meat products on the pizza. Foodborne bacteria that may be present on these foods grow
fastest at temperatures between 40 and 140 °F and can double in number every 20 minutes.
Q. I will be attending a tailgate party at the stadium and enjoying hamburgers. How can I be sure the
burgers are fully cooked?
A. The only way to know hamburgers are safely cooked is to use a food thermometer. Do not use color as a measure
of doneness. Ground beef may turn brown before it has reached a temperature at which bacteria are destroyed. A
hamburger cooked to 160 °F, measured with a food thermometer throughout the patty, is safe - regardless of color.
Q. Our dorm has a kitchen with a microwave on each floor. When I microwave the food according to the
package's instructions, it's still partly frozen. Why doesn't it get hot enough?
A. In a large building like a dorm, electrical equipment such as computers, toaster-ovens, hair dryers and irons
compete for current and reduce the electrical wattage of a microwave. A community oven that has been used just before
you, will cook slower than a cold oven. To compensate, set the microwave for the maximum time given in the instructions.
Also, avoid using an extension cord with the microwave because power is reduced as it flows down the cord. Cover foods
during cooking. Remember to stir or rearrange food and rotate the dish. Use a food thermometer to ensure the food
reaches the appropriate internal temperature.
Q. I frequently send "care packages" to my son at college. What other foods besides cookies, crackers
and candy can I mail?
A. Shelf-stable, microwavable entrees are one option. These foods are not frozen and will stay fresh without
refrigeration for about 18 months. Canned meats and fish as well as dried meat and poultry, such as beef and
turkey jerky, are safe to mail. Bacteria can't grow in foods preserved by removing moisture.
Q. My daughter's college is only a four-hour drive away, so she comes home often. How can I safely pack
leftovers for her to take back to school?
A. For a four-hour drive, food must be handled properly to keep it safe from spoilage and pathogenic bacteria.
Leftovers should be divided into shallow containers and cooled in the refrigerator prior to the trip. Pack the
food in an insulated cooler packed with several inches of ice or frozen gel packs. The temperature inside these
containers should be at or below 40 °F. Return the food to the refrigerator as soon as possible.
USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline, in conjunction with the Partnership for Food Safety Education's Fight BAC!®
campaign, advises all consumers to keep these four basic tips in mind when cooking and preparing foods:
- Clean. Wash hands and surfaces often.
- Separate. Separate raw meat, poultry and egg products from cooked foods to avoid cross-contamination.
- Cook. Raw meat, poultry and egg products need to be cooked thoroughly. Use a food thermometer to ensure foods have reached a high enough temperature to kill any harmful bacteria that might be present.
- Chill. Refrigerate promptly.
Note: USDA food safety experts are available for interviews. To set up an interview, please
contact Matt Baun at matthew.baun@fsis.usda.gov
or (301) 504-0235.
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