Food Safety Tip – How to Pack a Cooler

If you are headed into the great outdoors this summer, food in hand, packing a cooler is an essential must.  Packing it so that your food stays fresh and cold, however, is an art.  Here are a couple of how-to’s to ensure your food gets to your destination still cold and without the threat of abdominal cramps.  Ha!

1. Using gel packs or old frozen milk jugs instead of ice cuts down on how much water will melt and slosh around your cooler causing cross contamination.
2. If you do use ice, drain water 2 times per day and add fresh ice.  Sitting water can be like Disneyland for food born pathogens.
3. Stick an insta-read thermometer on the top of the inside lid of your cooler.  That way, you can glance at it when you open the cooler and have a really good indication whether foods are staying cold enough.  {You really want to it stay at 40 degrees or lower.}
4. Pack meat in airtight leak-proof containers, even if they are frozen solid {which they should be}.  You don’t want them cross contaminating other items.
5. Sanitize your cooler with a diluted bleach solution after every use.
6. If you are camping, store coolers in a very shady place and put a tarp or sleeping bag over the top of the them to ensure an extra layer of insulation.
7. If room permits, consider two coolers.  One for meats and dairy and the other for soda and other items that you will need more frequently.  This will ensure that you aren’t opening and closing the meat/dairy one as often.
8. Freeze bottled waters before packing them in the cooler.  They will stay colder longer and help keep everything else cold.
9. Fill your cooler completely.  Half full coolers will melt much, much faster than full ones.
10. Do not put warmed food back in the cooler like its a refrigerator.  It will not get cold enough be safe.
11. Chill everything before you put it in the cooler.  
12. Hard sided coolers are more effective than soft insulated coolers.  If you are going to keep things cool for any length of time, the hard sided cooler is a much better option.

Anymore tips you’ve learned for packing a cooler?

~Mavis