Camping is a great way to spend some quality time outdoors during the few Canadian summer months and if you can endure the bugs, there are a lot of activities, such as hiking and swimming, to keep everyone entertained and happy.  But one thing to seriously consider before heading to your camp site is what type of food to bring with you and how you’ll be storing it.

Here are some handy tips to take some of the guess work out of it.

1. Prepare a menu for your trip.

If you’re planning an overnight camping trip, you’ll still need to be careful of what foods to pack but less concerned than if you’re camping out for the week.  Planning a menu is a great way to make sure you have all the supplies you need.

2. Consider the following foods.

Keep all foods in tightly sealed containers and separate meats and drinks into their own coolers to prevent any cross contamination.

Frozen meats such as chicken, are suggested.  Because they need time to thaw, they’ll stay cold for longer than fresh meat.  Pack a separate cooler specifically for your meats to avoid cross-contamination.  Consider marinating meat before freezing it; this way all you’ll have to do is thaw and cook it. Once thawed, meat should be consumed within two days, but most importantly, when cooking meat, make sure you have a food thermometer handy that way you’ll know when meat is properly cooked through. (You’ll find this information under “More Tips”)

Whole grain breads, such as bagels are great for breakfast.  Bring them frozen and let them thaw.  They’ll last longer this way.

Peanut butter is a great topper for bagels or other whole grain breads and is also a good source of protein.

Whole grain pastas can be boiled in a pot over an open fire with the proper camping cookware.  Add in tomato sauce, herbs and seasonings for a very simple dish that will please the kids, or add sundried tomatoes, garlic, herbs, seasonings and a splash of olive oil for a simple yet flavorful meal.

Sweet potatoes can be baked in foil and have plenty of flavor just on their own.  They are also packed with antioxidants!

Canned beans such as chick peas, red kidney beans and black beans can be heavier to carry but make great bean salads.  Because they are high in fiber, they’ll fill you up and you’ll probably have some leftovers.  Toss in a can of tuna, chicken or salmon for some extra protein!

Condiments such as oils, different types of vinegars, salt, pepper, dried herbs and spices are a great way to make marinades for your meats or a super tasty dressing for that bean salad!  You may want to consider some lemons, limes or oranges too!  Use the juice and zests to add some zing!

Granola and trail mix make a great snack!

PLENTY of water!!! Keep any drinks in a separate cooler.  You’ll often be grabbing drinks from this cooler letting warm air into it, so avoid storing foods in the same cooler as your drinks.

Remember, you are camping and therefore sharing the great outdoors with Canadian wildlife, so if you’ll be away from your camp site for a while, find a safe place to hide your food.  After all, you didn’t do all that meal planning to feed the raccoons and bears!

More tips: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency offers some great tips on preventing food borne illness while camping, including a list of internal cooking temperatures.  Check out their handy tips here www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/concen/tipcib/picnice.shtml

So you’re planning a picnic or outdoor function and food is involved. What do you need to know about keeping your food safe and all your guests happy?

It starts when you are preparing your food. You should refrigerate or freeze perishables, prepared foods and leftovers within two hours or less of preparation. Marinate foods in the refrigerator.

Cool Tip #1: Cold foods should be kept at 4°C (40°F)

When serving cold food at a buffet, picnic or barbeque, keep these cool tips in mind:

• Cold foods should be kept at 4°C (40°F) or colder.
• Keep all perishable foods chilled until serving time.
• Place containers of cold food on ice for serving to make sure they stay cold.
• Refrigerate custards, cream pies and cakes with whipped cream or cream cheese frostings. Don’t serve them if refrigeration is not possible.

On the Road

When travelling with food, be aware that time, temperature and cold containers are key. Here are some tips to keep it cool:

• Keep frozen foods in the refrigerator or freezer until you are ready to go.
• Always use ice or cold packs and fill your cooler with food. A full cooler will maintain its cold temperatures longer than one that is partially filled.
• When travelling, keep the cooler in the air-conditioned passenger compartment of your car, rather than in a hot trunk.

Cool Tip #2: When running errands, do your grocery shopping last. And, in the grocery store, start with dry goods and finish with frozen foods so they have less time to thaw.

Picnic time isn’t just for teddy bears, it’s for anyone who enjoys the great outdoors!  Whether you’re planning a romantic picnic with your partner or spending some quality time with your family, there are a few things you need to prepare in order to make your picnic enjoyable.

The first thing you’ll need to do is prepare a check list.  Keep it simple but make sure you bring enough supplies to keep everyone clean, safe and comfortable.   Here’s a handy list to get you started.

Supplies:

• A soft picnic blanket or tablecloth, cushions or lawn chairs – You’ll be spending a few hours outdoors, so make sure you have a comfortable place to sit.
• Utensils, plates, cups
• Napkins or paper towels for easy clean ups
• Bottle opener
• Umbrella or parasol – You may want to keep out of the sun or the rain
• Insect repellant – In Canada, we have two seasons: Winter and bug season
• Sun screen
• Sunglasses
• Antihistamines – whether you have allergies or not, it’s always a good idea to pack these for a long trip
• Hand sanitizer or moist towelettes for cleaning hands and surfaces
• Garbage bags – Not all picnic sites have garbage bins nearby. Don’t litter.
• Games – bring your favorite board game or a deck of cards.  If you’re the sporty type, a Frisbee is a must!
• Your favorite music!

Food Supplies:

• Food storage containers – keeping your foods separate help reduce the chance of cross- contamination
• Cooler fully stocked with ice or ice packs – if you don’t have any ice packs, fill some plastic bottles with water and freeze them overnight.

Food Handling Tips:

Keep hot food hot and cold food cold!

Proper care should be taken when packing food for your picnic.  The Canadian Food Inspection Agency offers some great tips on preventing foodborne illness while picnicking. Check out their handy tips here. http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/concen/tipcon/picnice.shtml

Freezing chicken is a great time and money saver, but if you’re using chicken from the freezer, you’ll need to plan ahead and leave yourself plenty of time to defrost safely. There are three methods for safe defrosting – in the refrigerator, in cold water or in the microwave.  Never defrost your chicken at room temperature in the kitchen sink or on your counter!

The long thaw

The easiest method of defrosting is in the fridge overnight, but for smaller cuts of chicken you can get away with putting your frozen meat in the fridge in the morning if you want it defrosted by dinner.  It’s also perfectly fine to keep the frozen meat in its original packaging while defrosting, but just take care to put it on a separate plate so that no juices drip onto the other foods in your fridge. Once thawed, the meat can keep in the fridge for 1-2 days, again, remembering to keep the meat covered so that other foods are protected. Take a look at our storing and thawing guide for some more information.

The cold water method

If you weren’t able to plan ahead, a quicker method of defrosting the cold water method.  Using a bowl in the sink, submerge the chicken in cold water so that it is completely immersed.  It‘s important to keep the water cold, to prevent bacterial growth, so check on the process every half hour and change the water as need be.

Go Nuclear

The fastest method of defrosting is in the microwave, but it can also be the most uneven. The time it takes to defrost depends on the microwave, but many have a built-in defrost mode.  If you don’t, start defrosting in two-minute increments on a medium power setting.

In either case, make sure all the packaging is removed before starting, and place the chicken on a microwave-safe dish to catch any juices. You don’t want parts of the chicken to cook while it’s defrosting, so be patient and check frequently!

Finally, when defrosting, remember to always wash your hands, and clean any surfaces or kitchen tools that have come in contact with the raw meat.

If a best friend’s job is to make everything better, then meet your new BFF for the kitchen – the marinade.  Sure, it may not seem like much, but it’s a simple way to get more flavour and variety out of anything you cook without adding a ton of fat and calories.

A typical marinade is made up of three essential components: an acid, an oil, and a flavouring agent, such as an herb or spice.  These elements all work together to transform both the taste and the texture of your dish in different ways.

The acid, which could be wine, citrus, vinegar or any number of elements, breaks down (or “denatures”) the proteins and allowing it to absorb more of the flavour while keeping the meat’s natural juices.   The oil penetrates the meat and helps to prevent moisture loss during cooking, resulting in a finished dish with more of the natural juices locked inside.  The herbs and spices play the most important role – making the dish taste great.

For a no-mess marination, simply place everything in a zip-top bag and place it in the fridge overnight, or at least for an hour or so to let the liquids absorb.

Never marinate at room temperature, as it can encourage bacteria growth, and remember the most important marinade tip – never re-use a marinade once it has been in contact with raw meat.  If you want to use the marinade to make a sauce for the dish, remember to set some aside before you add it to the raw meat.

If you want to see what difference a marinade can make, try our recipe for Tequila Marinated Chicken with Rice, Corn and Black Beans.

Do you have a favorite, go-to marinade or a cooking technique that’s your best friend in the kitchen? Leave us a comment and tell us all about it!

Be Food Safe is the new identity for promoting food safety in products and services, throughout the food chain in Canada. Based on the key messages of clean, separate, cook and chill, the new logos and colours are designed attract attention and maintain a common look and feel across the food supply spectrum.

Grocery shoppers that were surveyed reacted positively to the new Be Food Safe icons and endorsed the idea of placing these icons on food packaging, and of making the information sheets as accessible as possible, including in grocery stores, community centres and other places they frequent on a regular basis.

Consumers all over believe it is “very important” to educate the public on safe food handling practices. The Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education, the body behind the Be Food Safe campaign, created this creative educational platform with input from consumers and food companies.

Members of the Partnership have an opportunity to license the colourful, consumer tested, Be Food Safe platform for use in internal and external communication programming. Using the same graphics, across providers and up and down the supply chain, will give them greater impact.

Be Food Safe

The four easy lessons of clean, separate, cook and chill can prevent harmful bacteria from making your family sick.

Clean

Bacteria can spread throughout the kitchen and get on hands, cutting boards, knives, and counter tops. Frequent cleaning can keep that from happening. And always wash hands with warm water and soap for 20 seconds before and after handling food.

Separate

Cross-contamination is how harmful bacteria spread. Keep raw meat, poultry, and seafood and their juices away from foods that won’t be cooked.

Cook

Even for experienced cooks, the improper heating and preparation of food means bacteria can survive. Use a food thermometer – you can’t tell if food is cooked safely by how it looks.

Chill

Bacteria multiply fastest at temperatures between 4°C (40°F) and 60°C (140°F), so chilling food properly is one of the most effective ways to reduce the risk of foodborne illness.

Research findings by the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety Education reveal that despite the fact that a majority of adults feel confident they understand and follow safe food handling procedures, a sizeable number do not consistently follow certain safe food handling practices.

Some examples:

• Only 15% of people consistently use a food thermometer. Using a food thermometer is important – you can’t tell food has been cooked safely by how it looks.
• Over half of people say they defrost meat and poultry at room temperature at least “sometimes.” This practice can allow bacteria to grow on food.
• Only 50% of consumers reported washing their hands for 20 seconds, before and after handling food. Clean hands and surfaces often to reduce the risk of foodborne illness.

For more information on food safety, click on the “Safe Food Handling” section of the CFC website at www.chicken.ca or you can visit the Partnership at www.befoodsafe.ca.

Barfblog is a unique online forum where a number of authors pen, post and link to stories about food safety. This unique forum is either loved or hated, depending on your perspective. No one is singled out, but no one gets to hide either. The one common thread is that everyone, from the farmer to the consumer has a role to play in making sure food is safe.

The man behind it, Dr. Douglas Powell, is an associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University and the publisher of barfblog.com. Trained in molecular biology, Doug found that food safety was a discipline where he could meld his interests in science, society and policy — more formally known as risk analysis.

His lab, a research team of 20 undergraduates, graduate students and research assistants, edits the daily bites listserv which have over 12,000 subscribers in 70 countries.

According to his blog bio, he leads a diverse group of students that seek “innovative ways to compel everyone in the farm-to-fork food safety system — individual producers, retail employees, and consumers, among others — to acknowledge and adopt best practices to reduce the risk of foodborne illness.”

Doug has been saying for years that food safety is not simple. There is no silver bullet. Food safety is complex, constant and requires commitment.

Dr. Doug Powell and his colleagues, especially Dr. Ben Chapman, now of North Carolina State University, are a primary source for food safety information during outbreaks and are often quoted in mainstream media reports. Doug also regularly films short food safety videos and podcasts that are posted on the blog or posted to YouTube.

Visit the blog to see it for yourself at http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/.

Whether it’s for the office or for the kids at school, packing lunches is a great way to ensure you can have healthy meals made with fresh ingredients while saving a few dollars. But it’s also important to remember the rules of food safety when packing lunches to avoid getting a lunch box “bug”.

Always remember to wash your hands before, during, and after preparation, and of course teach your kids to wash their hands as well before digging into their lunches. Be sure the food preparation area is clean and dry beforehand to prevent any germs from spreading to the food. It’s also a good idea to give the lunchbox itself a wipe down with a disinfectant to make sure it’s clean before you start.

If you’re packing perishable foods such as sandwiches with eggs, deli meats, chicken or tuna, adding an icepack or investing in an insulated lunchbox is perfect for keeping things cold until lunchtime. Alternatively, a frozen individual juice box can be a great substitute for an icepack if you’re short on space.

If your packing hot foods like soups, always place them in a vacuum bottle or thermos that you’ve sterilized with boiling water before hand. It’s best to keep the hot foods in a separate, spill-proof container away from any perishables. Washed fruits and vegetables, crackers, and baked goods can be eaten at room temperature, and are always great additions in any lunchbox.

Preparing lunches the night before can be a real time saver in the morning. Just pack everything and leave it the fridge. All you need to do is a grab and go on your way out the next day. So get into the routine of packing lunches while remembering the rules of food safety. Your stomach and your pocketbook will thank you!

With our hectic lives, preparing healthy nutritious meals can be difficult. One of the quickest and easiest ways to get back in the kitchen is to start packing your lunches. Making lunches for the whole family is also great way to get your kids involved. Why not get together the night before to prepare lunches for the next day? Set a great example by making a similar, balanced lunch for the both of you.

It’s often difficult to ensure your children are eating their lunches at school, but by allowing them to participate in making their own lunches, gets them excited about eating. Sandwiches are always a great option and can be kept in the fridge overnight. You can easily transform a boring sandwich by switching up the bread. Why not try pumpernickel, foccia or tortilla wraps to keep your child’s interest?

If you’re looking for some lunchbox inspiration, try out our super quick recipes for a Chicken Club Twister or the One-minute Chicken and Apple Tortilla Melt. You can also try out Theresa Albert’s recipe for homemade chicken fingers- a special lunchbox treat that both you and your kids are sure to enjoy.

Healthy treats at lunchtime also help children to concentrate and learn in the classroom. Fresh fruit and crunchy vegetables are always winners in lunchboxes as they can be eaten at room temperature and are easily packable.

Including your kids in the preparation of their meals not only gets them more excited about eating, but also increases your quality time together. Getting into a routine will help ensure that you’re setting a great example while eating nutritious lunches yourself!

If you don’t already own a food thermometer, it’s one of the best tools you can have in your kitchen. Did you know that foods, such as meat and poultry, start forming bacteria between 40º and 140ºF? Having a food thermometer will ensure that your food is cooked properly, reducing any risk of foodborne illness. Before you head out to find one, there are a few things you should know.

First of all, food thermometers come in various styles and are available at most grocery, kitchen and hardware stores. They range in price based on the certain features, so make sure you find one that suits your cooking needs. Avoid buying a thermometer with temperature ranges. Foods should be cooked to an exact doneness, especially poultry.

If you’re not sure to what temperature your food should be cooked, click on this link to Health Canada’s Safe Food Handling section. For chicken doneness temperatures, click on this link to view the Chicken Cooking Times chart provided by the Chicken Farmers of Canada. You may want to print these out and put them up in your kitchen for a quick reference.

Fork Thermometer

It looks like a fork and feels like a fork, but it’s actually a powerful thermometer that can read food temperatures within 2-10 seconds. The fork thermometer must be placed at least ¼” deep in the thickest part of the food.

Pop-up Thermometer

This clever thermometer stays inside a food while its cooking, then “pops up” when the desired internal temperature is reached.

Thermocouple

This high-tech thermometer works by registering the internal temperature on a handset that is attached to the sensor by a cord. This kind of thermometer stays in the food while it is cooking and gives very quick readings (within 2-5 seconds). It needs to be placed ¼” deeper into the thickest part of the food.

Once you’ve purchased your food thermometer, read the manufacturer instructions before putting it to use. Remember, the reason you are using a food thermometer is to make sure the food you are eating is safe and free from bacteria, so don’t forget to wash your thermometer stem with hot soapy water between uses.