Food Safety While Camping

It's a great time of year for camping, with cooler nights, and warm days where swimming, hiking, and fishing are all great activities for the whole family. When camping, there are a few special concerns to keep in mind when it comes to food.

Safety is, and should be, your first concern when camping.  All the planning and excitement for a fun-filled camping experience won't do you any good if it's all ruined because of an unpleasant experience, or worse.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When thinking about safety, most people think about putting the fire out safely, having bandaids ready,  or even about insect repellent and sunscreen.  But, believe me, there is another concern to think about – food safety.  And we're not just talking about keeping your potato salad cold.  We're also talking about keeping your food, and you, out of harms way.

How does food storage affect your safety at a camp site?

1. Food poisoning – cases are reported every year of campers suffering from illness and actual food poisoning due to improperly cooked or improperly stored food.

2. Wild animal attacks – although rare, cases of attacks due to an animal being startled while foraging for food are still reported.

As you can see, food storage accounts for several safety issues. Let's take a look at some tips and tricks for how to safely store food when camping.

The Cold Food

Choose a cooler that will safely accommodate your food and keep it cold. Placing frozen bottles of water inside of your cooler will keep your food and the cooler colder for a longer period of time, and you can drink the water. Freeze any meat that you won't be using the first day in camp. This will allow it to thaw inside of the cooler and cut down on the chances of it spoiling before you use it.  It will also act as an ice block to keep everything inside the cooler cold. Think of it this way; a frozen block of ice takes up room and doesn't feed anybody, whereas a frozen slab of bacon, meat, or fish does double duty. 

The Nonperishable Food

Store your nonperishable food items in plastic containers with airtight lids. This will keep your food items safe from weather, bugs, and larger hungry critters, and will also keep everything together in one place. Bread, cookies, and other dry food items should be kept in one container, tightly sealed.  Other heavier items, like fruit, should be kept together in a separate airtight container. You don't want your grapefruit rolling around on top of your bread.  And, yes, keep your canned goods in this same manner. Even though critters won't get into a can, if it rains, you won't lose the labels and end up with 'surprise soup' for dinner.

Camping Breakfast Day Two (Photo credit: Simply Bike)

The Cooking Utensils

Place your cooking items such as pots, eating and cooking utensils, plates and cups in several plastic containers with snap on lids. This way you'll have everything in one place when you need to find it. By storing them in the container, you'll keep everything clean when you go to use it again. The plastic containers also double as wash up stations, which is another important safety consideration. You don't want to leave dirty food-covered utensils sitting around.

Safeguard Containers For Car Campers

Place your food storage container and cooler inside of your car before you crawl into your tent at night. Critters such as raccoons and squirrels are quite resourceful and will figure out how to open or chew through almost anything holding food.  If you're in bear country, you may just wake up and find entire containers missing.  And never, ever, ever store your food inside of your tent.

Safeguard Containers For Hikers

If you are hiking into your campsite, you won't have your car to store your food containers.  Instead, you'll need to put your sealed food containers into sacks and hoist them up in a tree. Your goal is to keep them out of reach of any animals, such as bears, that may be attracted to your food. Make sure you still put your foods in airtight containers so an animal is less likely to smell anything tasty. Then be sure to hoist the bags up in a tree at least 50 yards away from camp. Do this on day one because if an animal gets even one treat from you, they will be back for another, even if you have safeguarded it.

Planning for food safety for your camping trip takes a bit of work, but it's worth it.  Food cooked over a campfire under the stars somehow makes everything taste better.  Keep your food, and your family, safe with these simple food storage tips, and enjoy the great outdoors!  And be sure to check back later this week for some tasty campfire recipes!

Cooking for Little Ones

Cooking for toddlers and growing children presents some unique challenges along the way. While you want to provide them with those ever so important nutrients, it is often difficult to get them to eat those foods that are best for their growing bodies. We are all probably well aware of the food pyramid and the number of servings our children need of healthy grains, proteins, fruits, vegetables, and calcium products. Getting them to eat these nourishing foods is another matter all together unfortunately.

Image via WikipediaThe good news when cooking for children is that you do not necessarily need to incorporate all the important nutrients into every meal. The truth of the matter is that raw cucumbers, thinly sliced and sprinkled with salt, make a much healthier snack than potato chips and many little ones actually love this for a snack. You get a vegetable in their system and they are getting a treat at snack time. The same holds true for melon and cantaloupes. These make excellent snacks and can also be a great and healthy part of the diet for little ones.

When it comes to cooking for little ones, however man, woman, and child cannot live on macaroni and cheese alone. (It's been tried and tested and failed miserably.)  Try mixing things up whenever you can while keeping meals kid-friendly. It is important that you try to introduce whole grains, proteins, and vegetables whenever possible at meal times around your home.

Cooking healthier meals for kids is now easier than ever before. Fresh fruits and vegetables are best whenever possible. However, if you cannot manage fresh, you should avoid canned (fruits especially as they are often swimming in sugary sweetness) whenever possible. Frozen is far preferable to canned when it comes to both fruit and vegetables, as there are often fewer additives, and frozen foods are often frozen soon after picking, preserving many nutrients which may be lost from canned foods during processing.

If you need some great meal ideas that are kid-friendly and easy on the budget, you can often find recipes readily available online. You can meet your child's calcium and dairy product needs by adding milk as the drink of choice for meals or a slice of (REAL - NOT "American") cheese melted over their favorite vegetable. Ice cream, yogurt, and pudding also make excellent calcium rich treats, in moderation of course.

Image via WikipediaEncourage your children to try new things rather than cooking the same few meals over and over again that you know they are likely to eat. This prevents two things from happening. First of all, it helps you not to get bored when cooking for your children. Second, it allows your children to try new flavors and textures and form opinions about them. By trying new things they will learn not only about the things they dislike but also the foods they really enjoy. And they are more likely to grow up to become adults with a more adventurous (and healthy) palate when they are out on their own and cooking for themselves!

You should also keep in mind that your children are people too when cooking for them. Just as you have foods you like and dislike, they also will develop tastes over time. Those tastes may also change in time as well. It's frustrating, I know, to spend time and money preparing a meal only to have your child push the plate away and refuse to even try the meal. For this, I recommend enlisting their help in the kitchen. Children are much more likely to eat the things they had a hand in preparing as a matter of accomplishment and pride. (It's psychological warfare I know but all is fair in war and dinnertime!)

Perhaps the greatest gift you can give yourself (much greater than the help in the kitchen) by 'forcing' your little ones to help prepare dinner is that they will learn to better appreciate your culinary efforts and eat peacefully rather than sullenly. This tactic has met with great success in many households when cooking for little ones. I hope you will enjoy the same degree of success as well. (We'll talk more about cooking with your kids in our next post, so  be sure to check back later this week!)

Cooking Ideas for Kids: