Pans, Hands, and Utensils: Food safety & outdoor grilling rules.

Grilled rib-eye steak and lime-cilantro marinated shrimp in the company of garlic mashed potatoes is one of my favorite meals. Nearly anything grilled properly and safely is the start of a good meal.

Here, in upstate New York, the outdoor grilling season winds down after Labor Day, but committed grillers brave the elements with parkas and boots and are out there making smoke, adding flavor, killing bacteria, and loving the experience. Those lucky enough to live in warmer climates can cook in the great outdoors all year long. The alternative is to move the operation inside and embrace modern technology while still creating foods with the characteristic grilled flavor profiles.

Indoor or outdoor kitchen grills fired by propane, natural gas, or wood all produce meals that are safe and of excellent quality. Keeping products safe when cooked on a grill is generally no different from frying products in a cast-iron pan. As always, we must be aware of the entire process, identifying and controlling the hazards and considering critical control points and limits. Obviously, the operational processes required for working inside surrounded by a battery of equipment are not the same as those used for an offsite event where we might be grilling meat, fish, and vegetables for a party of 500.

Consider these points when working a grill:

Outside food preparation presents time and temperature control challenges, especially when offsite and away from power outlets. How will products be kept cold while batch cooking? It’s also important to ensure that products taken out of 41°F insulated coolers (and allowed to remain in the danger zone) are not returned to the operation and reused. Check local regulations for exact time/temperature requirements.
Cross-contamination is always a concern. Pans, hands, and utensils become vehicles for transferring bacteria and viruses if workers are not properly trained on handling raw foods placed on a grill and removing cooked products to sanitary pans or to guests’ plates.
For offsite venues, bring along a good supply of extra pans, utensils, and disposable gloves. An approved means for staff to wash their hands is also critical. Hand sanitizer does not replace hand washing, and hands must be washed before new gloves are donned.
A system for controlling utensils is very important. One could argue that the surface of tongs used to remove raw chicken from a marinade receives enough heat while cooking to use the same tongs for turning and removing cooked products. But would you stake your reputation and guests’ health on this possibility? To ensure safety, the cook must keep the tongs within the high heat area long enough to kill bacteria or viruses. This usually happens naturally, but it’s easy to rush and place a raw product on the grill with tongs that are immediately used to serve a cooked product. Using separate, color-coded tongs (i.e., red handles for raw item) helps prevent contamination of cooked foods. Consider using tongs for raw products and offset spatulas for cooking processes. Change out utensils at least every two hours, more often if a high volume of food is being cooked. Provide a dirty utensil drop area to ensure they will not be reused.
Cross-contamination can also occur when properly cooked foods are placed in a pan that previously held raw foods. This is more likely to occur at offsite events with buffetstyle service. One control method is to label raw food pans, making it easier to identify and separate them from pans used for cooked foods.
Control of TCS products (Time and Temperature Control for Safety, formerly called potentially hazardous foods) requires cooks to take temperatures of products. Color or feel is never an indication of safe, proper minimum cooking temperatures. As the grill becomes coated with caramelized sugars from marinades or browned proteins, products look “done” when they have not yet reached the proper minimum internal temperatures. Place calibrated thermometers at each cooking station, and require staff to use them. Post proper minimum internal cooking temperatures near the grill for reference.
Consider allergen hazards when grilling multiple products. A marinade containing peanut oil used for the chicken can easily contaminate the grilled vegetables placed in the same area where the chicken was cooked. Staff must know all of the ingredients in a product and be very conscious when processing products for guests with stated allergies.

Inside or outside, safely grilling products for five or five hundred requires attention to detail and HACCP-based processes. Time and temperature control, along with carefully planned and consistently implemented procedures, ensure product and guest safety.