Healthy BBQ ideas

After a long, hard winter it is finally here! Barbecue season is back with a vengeance. From the smell of burgers cooking to the sizzle of vegetables grilling, Canadians are thrilled to be cooking outdoors once again.

Be BBQ smart
When it comes to being barbecue-savvy, there are a few key pointers that will help keep your cooked food healthy and safe while you enjoy delicious and nutritious foods.

When the temperature rises and raw meats enter the picture, food safety is always a concern. In order to enjoy a healthy barbecue season and avoid any food-borne illness, consider some of the safety tips below.

• Always wash your hands with soap and water before handling food.
• Rinse fresh fish, meats and poultry in cool water to remove any potentially harmful bacteria that may have collected in their packaging.
• The #1 risk of food poisoning when barbecuing is from raw and undercooked meat. Be sure to cook chicken, burgers, hot dogs and kabobs until they’re hot all the way through, the meat is no longer pink and juices run clear. Do not cook them until they are charred and black. Charred or black meat may contain cancer-causing substances.
• Keep raw and cooked meats separate from each other, as raw meat can contaminate the cooked meat. To prevent cross contamination, wash your hands thoroughly after handling raw meat, use separate utensils for raw and cooked meat, never put cooked food back on the same plate that held raw food and don't add sauce or marinade to cooked food if it has already been used with raw meat – reserve some marinade for basting.
• Research shows that high temperature charcoal grilling of foods that contain fat and protein, including barbecue favorites like hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken, can lead to the production of cancer-causing chemicals, called heterocyclic amines (HAs), in the smoke. To minimize the risk, you can precook foods and finish them off on the grill; less time spent on the grill means fewer cancer-causing agents in the meats. Also, choose leaner cuts of meat and trim the fat off because oil and fats often spark smoke (full of cancer-causing substances).
• Keep food covered whenever possible to protect it from insects, birds and pets, which can carry bugs.
• Throw food out if it has been sitting out for more than one or two hours. Perishable food is susceptible to bacteria growth.

Recipe image featured above: Grilled Scaloppini with Peaches
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