Safety On The Grill

I’m KayDee Gilkey and welcome to Open Range. Here’s Greg with today’s report.

Thanks KayDee. It’s time again for grilling season and there are some easy things you can do to help make the preparation and cooking of a steak on the grill safe. Jackie Madill, Director of Consumer Information at the Washington State Beef Commission.

MADILL: Well if this is the first time you’ve broken out your grill it’s always good to give it a nice annual, at least, cleaning. Scrub down the grates, pull up the grates and make sure that any of the drippings are cleared off of those flame protectors so having a nice clean grill to start with is always great way to start out having a very successful grilling season.

One of the biggest problems in cooking outdoors is making sure to keep your meat safe.

MADILL: You definitely always want to make sure that if you are defrosting any of your steaks or roasts or ground beef from your freezer you want to make sure that you go ahead and defrost that in your refrigerator as opposed to out on the counter. And if you are really in a pinch and you need to defrost it a little faster a great practice is to put it in a zip lock bag and then you can run cold water over it to help it defrost more quickly.

Madill reminds folks to use separate plates and utensils to avoid cross contamination of foods and also says that every outdoor grill master should have a meat thermometer to make sure the meats are cooked to the proper temperature. Check out www.wabeef.org for more tips and recipes.

I’m Greg Martin and that’s today’s AgriBeef Minute.

Thanks Greg. Don’t forget Greg will be back each Wednesday with the AgriBeef Minute. Agri Beef Co - Real Families, Great People, Exceptional Beef. I’m KayDee Gilkey.