Sanitizing tong questions?

[HouseDoc]

I place my tongs over the vent on my kettle, after a few min, they gotta be OK.

 

[Asador]

I second Jrodgers method, I stick the metal tongs into the coals for 30 seconds to burn off bacteria

 

[cowgirl]

Another tong burner here.
...and when in doubt, I step into the house and give em a quick wash.

 

[lastmajordude]

I was given a single thin rod device with a sideways curl and unbarbed hook at the end. I tend to stick it in coals or a quick wipe with a paper towel sprayed with a anti bacterial spray.

 

[quamdar]

Heat them up a bit, if the heat is making the chicken safe to eat it will make the tong that touched the chicken safe as well. If you're worried though I'd just start keeping some antibacterial wipes by the grill and wipe them down quick. I keep a tub by the grill for wiping down surfaces I set leaky packages of meat down on before I bring out my pan for cooked food.

 

[NickTheGreat]

I bought a package of disposable plastic gloves at Sams. Maybe 2000 of them for $10 or something crazy. I put on a glove to take the meat out of the bag or off the plate. Then toss glove away. Seems wasteful at times, but it beats washing my hands so often, or the tongs.

 

[jestridge]

Have a pan or bucket of bleach water, dip the tongs after each use

 

[luberconn]

i don't worry too much. i always use the same tongs on raw meat and flip the cooked meat. never any complaints. while i know it's for safety. i think people make a bigger deal about it than it should be. so long as your food is cooked to temp, you should be alright. i think most of the issues occur when handling the raw food and touching stuff with your hands, than the actual cooked food.

 

[shazam]

i too use the fire sterilization method. i don't worry as much about pork and beef. when it comes to chicken though i'm pretty careful. the chicken i will usually take right to the grill in the original package (unless marinating it) and set the package right on a layer of 4-5 sheets of newspaper on my smoker shelf. my seasonings will already be open and lined up. i use one disposable blue nitrile glove on my left hand and my right hand never touches anything but seasoning, grill handles, and tongs (to hold the packaging down). i season one side, flip it in the package, hit the other side, and onto the smoker. take my clean hand, peel the glove off, toss it in the paper, fold up, toss, done. the tongs or curleycue fork i use for large cuts of meat, i insert through the firebox vent for about 2 min. or until bright red, pull out, wire brush, and prop at an angle in my smokestack. repeat on flip. this works for me, but i'm using the cheap wooden handled curly fork and tongs (wally world had them on clearance in 2002 for $.99 and i got about 12 of each). if i use my all metal stainless tongs i just use lightweight leather gloves. i never wash chicken because i feel the more i handle it, the greater chance of just spreading germs. whole chickens have been found to have less contamination. z

 

[Demosthenes9]

I think this is sooo over blown. Last I checked, chicken was already potentially contaminated (for lack of a better word), but putting it onto a hot grill to cook it takes care of that.

Oh no, I touched raw chicken and then flipped a steak. A steak which is on the same hot grill that safely cooks the chicken. Only time it might possibly be a concern is if the steak was ready to come off the grill and you just so happened to have touched raw chicken with the tongs. Even then, think about it. The surface of the steak is at over 200 degrees. If your tongs were not sterile, the residual heat from the steak would take care of any bacteria.

 

[Yendor]

Too much panic here. You all would not even want to see my FIL eat. "Oh, fondue night, you really don't have to cook any of this venison or beef, oh, its right next to the raw chicken, that's okay, it's cut up." Nope, he hasn't had worms or salmonella or any exotic food borne illness.

 

[m-fine]

Too much panic here. You all would not even want to see my FIL eat. "Oh, fondue night, you really don't have to cook any of this venison or beef, oh, its right next to the raw chicken, that's okay, it's cut up." Nope, he hasn't had worms or salmonella or any exotic food borne illness.

According to the CDC:

"Every year, Salmonella is estimated to cause one million foodborne illnesses in the United States, with 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths."

That's just salmonella. When cooking for other people, I think it is important to take some responsibility and pick SOME method to make sure the tongs used on the finished meat are clean and that you avoid cross contamination to non-cooked foods during prep. It doesn't matter how good your Que tastes, if you get everyone at the neighborhood party sick, your reputation as a chef will be in the gutter.

 

[TedW]

biggest source of salmonella is produce.

I'd be very curious how many salmonella cases there were from improperly cooked backyard chickens.

 

[Yendor]

Here's the CDC link to the outbreaks. "When two or more people get the same illness from the same contaminated food or drink, the event is called a foodborne disease outbreak."

https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/outbreaks.html

Notice the "Live animal" and alfalfa sprouts.

Be cautious, but people don't die that easily. Make sure you do what you feel needs to be done to be safe. Cook your steak to 145°, that's the food safety guideline, if you need to. You won't see my steaks reach that temp though.

 

[m-fine]

biggest source of salmonella is produce.

I'd be very curious how many salmonella cases there were from improperly cooked backyard chickens.

I think produce is the biggest source for commercially prepared food, but that is because restaurants and other commercial kitchens have higher standards for handling of raw meats.

I would guess only a few cases come from under cooked chicken itself, many more from cross contamination from utensils, hands cutting boards etc. that touched the chicken before it was cooked (properly or not). Backyard grilling is likely a pretty significant source since infection rates are highest in the summer months and lowest in the winter.

 

[m-fine]

Here's the CDC link to the outbreaks. "When two or more people get the same illness from the same contaminated food or drink, the event is called a foodborne disease outbreak."

https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/outbreaks.html

Notice the "Live animal" and alfalfa sprouts.

Be cautious, but people don't die that easily. Make sure you do what you feel needs to be done to be safe. Cook your steak to 145°, that's the food safety guideline, if you need to. You won't see my steaks reach that temp though.

Yeah, no need to ruin a steak for a very small risk. Washing tongs, heating them over the flame, or swapping to another pair is a very small price to pay to protect against something that is much more common.

 

[m-fine]

BTW, the CDC does not investigate outbreaks from home cooks unless the numbers are significant (dozens hospitalized). The major outbreaks on that link represent only a fraction of a percent of actual sicknesses each year.

 

[smoke ninja]

Here's the CDC link to the outbreaks. "When two or more people get the same illness from the same contaminated food or drink, the event is called a foodborne disease outbreak."

https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/outbreaks.html

Notice the "Live animal" and alfalfa sprouts.

Be cautious, but people don't die that easily. Make sure you do what you feel needs to be done to be safe. Cook your steak to 145°, that's the food safety guideline, if you need to. You won't see my steaks reach that temp though.

The "live" link refers to live fowl as in contact made with a live chicken. It has nothing to do with grilling chicken and is quite irrelevant to this discussion.

Of coarse we'll just add these to the statistics and continue to scare people

 

[TedW]

There are "facts" to justify any fear anyone has.

I suspect the CDC #'s are low, only because the average person getting such an illness chalks it off as nothing and it never gets reported. It can be lethal to those with weakened immune systems, but so is winter.