12 Steps to a Safe and Successful Home-Gate Party

- [Instructor] During football season, tailgating and home gating parties are quite popular.

In the course of these day long outdoor events, much food is prepared, served and consumed before or during and after the game.

This creates some particular challenges regarding food safety, especially during the warmer months of the season.

In this video, Penn State Extension would like to offer some tips and strategies to help keep you and your guests safe from potential food contamination during a tailgate or a home gate party.

When preparing food for an all-day event, begin by wiping down counters and other surfaces with kitchen spray and soapy water before putting anything out on the counters.

Some food items for your home gate party may need to be thawed.

Safe thawing of frozen meat items will keep them out of the temperature zone and below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

The defrosting process can be accomplished in three ways.

In cold water, in a leak-proof container, in the refrigerator or using the defrost function on a microwave.

If you choose microwave defrosting, you must use the food immediately.

Using colored cutting boards and separate knives when prepping raw food and ready to eat food can help prevent cross-contamination.

To keep food at safe temperatures, it would be best to portion out smaller containers so that the majority of the food can remain chilled in the fridge or on ice.

Then you can serve small amounts and always have a clean serving container when it's time to replace.

If you are preparing and using a marinade for grilling, be sure to reserve some before adding onto your raw food items.

The reserve marinade is now uncontaminated and can be used for glazing the finished product.

Plan to have extension cords ready for any electric skillets or slow cookers that guests might provide.

For a home gate party, it's important to know the right formation in the fridge to keep food safe and prevent cross-contamination.

Ready to eat foods are on the top and raw food goes on the bottom.

Another helpful tip is to store drinks in a cooler, leaving valuable fridge space open for temperature sensitive foods.

Warming the oven ahead of time for when guests arrive can help keep food at the proper temperature.

Be sure to insert the food thermometer into the thickest portion of the meat if you want to get the true internal temperature.

Use new clean utensils and plates to get everything off the grill safely.

When food is out on the buffet, it's important to note the time the food should be discarded.

Replace old containers and utensils with new ones.

When things start to slow down, you can begin to put food away.

Wrap everything that can be salvaged.

You can always get more food out of the coolers or fridge.

If something is left out, it must be discarded after two hours.

Once the game is over at your home gate, many people are going to want seconds.

Remove food items or dishes straight from the fridge to the oven to reheat to the correct temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and place cold food items on ice.