Food safety experts offer reminders for holiday weekend

The 4th of July is fast approaching and some of us may feel our grilling and cooking skills are a little rusty after more than a year of social distancing. But food safety experts are here to help.

(NBC NEWS)- This 4th of July temperatures and grills are heating up.

The holiday is expected to look much different than last year with more celebrations and larger get-togethers.

But some things haven’t changed, namely food safety.

“It is so important to keep these food handling and cooking guidelines, keeping them in your head,” Sandra Eskin, Deputy Undersecretary for Food Safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.

The USDA issued an important reminder for home chefs: wash your hands, keep raw meat away from other food, and cook it to the proper temperature using a meat thermometer. 

Proper temperatures are 160 degrees for sausage, 145 degrees for steak, 165 degrees for turkey and chicken.

Avoid the so-called danger zone. That’s the temperature range when bacteria flourishes. Keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

“If it’s 90 degrees or hotter, chances are you can’t really keep those unrefrigerated, the cold items unrefrigerated for more than an hour. So you can perhaps prepare it and then put it in an ice chest,” Eskin said.

For additional tips and reminders, visit foodsafety.gov.