The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service reduced the Memorial Day cookout to four cooking temperatures and a two-hour out-time rule in its Friday holiday-weekend push. Whole poultry, poultry breasts, and ground poultry all cook to 165°F. Hamburgers and other ground beef cook to 160°F. Whole cuts of beef, pork, veal, and lamb cook to 145°F with a three-minute rest. Hot dogs reheat to 165°F. [1] Perishable food cannot sit out more than two hours total — one hour if outdoor temperatures climb above 90°F. [2] After that, USDA's standing rule is discard.

The household-side rituals are the same every year and they remain the rail. Hands wash with soap and water for twenty seconds before, during, and after meat handling. Cutting boards and utensils that touched raw poultry, beef, seafood, or eggs separate from the boards and utensils that touch the produce and the cooked plate. Cooler perishables hold below 40°F until the grill is lit; hot food off the grill holds above 140°F until served. Cleveland Clinic's Friday holiday-weekend safety guidance emphasized refrigerator-only marinating and called the meat thermometer the single most under-purchased piece of cookout equipment. [3]

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates one in six Americans will get food poisoning in a given year — 48 million cases, 128,000 hospitalizations, 3,000 deaths. [2] Memorial Day weekend, with outdoor temperatures climbing into the 80s and 90s across much of the country and the two-hour out-time becoming the one-hour out-time, is the calendar's first stress test of the household-side rail.

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago