If you are going camping or taking food to a party, you need to transport the food properly. It is important to know the basic rules for transporting foods safely. Homemade foods are holiday highlights. Whether you are heading for a holiday cottage or carrying foods for your dearest one, you have to maintain basic rules of food transportation. Here are some tips to transport foods safely.
While taking a cooked dish you need to cool it before carrying it. If possible refrigerate it as quickly as possible. You have to carry it in a cool box with sufficient ice packs.
When you are carrying frozen foods, you have to keep those in a cool place. Make sure that those won’t get too hot on the road. As you can’t refreeze those again, so make sure those are kept in a cool box.
You have to seal all the boxes of the foods properly before traveling. It will help you to prevent cross-contamination. Never mix raw and ready-to-eat foods. Make sure that all the containers are thoroughly sealed and separated from each other.
If you are traveling by car and the weather is hot, make sure that the place where you are keeping the food is cool enough. You can open the doors of the car and let the heat out first. Then place the foods in the coolest part of the car.
Whether you are at home or outside of the home, the food safety rules are the same. You need to wash your hands before cooking or handling any food items. All the equipment and utensils need to be cleaned thoroughly.
All the foods need to be kept at the correct temperature. Cold food shouldn’t be above 8C for more than four hours. Similarly, hot food shouldn’t be below 63C for more than two hours. If it happens you should throw this food away.
If you are traveling long distances, it might be wiser to buy perishable items from the nearby supermarket. If there is a scope of using the fridge, then transfer the foods immediately before unpacking. If there is no option for using the fridge then plan to enjoy the foods just after arriving at your destination.
Plan to carry foods that don’t need refrigerating like a muffin, cakes without butter icing, bread, trail mix. Canned or vegetarian meals are a great option for carrying food.