Keep your Memorial Day cookout safe with these essential tips!

Many will be grilling in lite of Memorial Day; however, the CDC warns that millions could get sick from grilling mistakes.

Meredith Carothers, a food and safety expert with USDA’s Meat and Poultry Hotline, shares some crucial tips to ensure your cookout is safe and enjoyable.

“I would say the biggest would be not fully cooking the foods on the grill. Using the same utensil that you use to put all the raw stuff on the grill to take the cooked stuff. Certain bacteria can live on surfaces for like 72 hours so. Think about it. You’re making dinner. You’ve touched chicken. Touched your spice containers without washing your hands. And then in the morning you’re cooking eggs and you want to use the same spice in your eggs or something. And then that gets all touched to other places. So yeah, it’s just crazy what your hands can move around.”

For more food safety tips, or if you have questions, click HERE.

Related Stories
Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, provides new updates on winter storm impacts and the outlook for rural power reliability.
Jessi Grote from the AgriSafe Network provides winter safety guidance for rural communities still recovering from the recent winter storm.
CattleCon 2026 officially kicks off Tuesday and continues through Thursday, bringing producers together to shape the future of the U.S. cattle industry.
The federal government’s status is far from the only factor moving the markets on Friday. Two critical reports released today on producer inflation and the status of the U.S. cattle herd are also top of mind.
The changing political climate in America is leading to a drop in migrant crossings near the U.S.-Mexico border, where ranchers like Dr. Mike Vickers say they witnessed horrors from death to child trafficking.
Record milk output looks strong today, but shrinking replacement numbers mean future supply adjustments could be faster and more volatile.

LATEST STORIES BY THIS AUTHOR:

Nearly everyone in the South Texas ag community appears extremely worried about the potential of a New World screwworm epidemic, according to a local veterinarian. RFD NEWS Correspondent Frank McCaffrey reports.
Large-scale land purchases signal rising competition for ranchland, reinforcing its value while reshaping long-term access and control in rural agriculture.
Brian Earnest, an animal protein economist with CoBank, shares insights into current demand trends and the challenges facing broiler production.
Jack Hubbard, with the Center for the Environment and Welfare, shares context and perspective on the controversial letter about Prop 12 circulating in Washington and how a review shows it misled the public.
AFBF Economist Faith Parum discusses the financial challenges currently facing farmers and the Farm Bureau’s 2026 outlook for the farm economy.
From tariff talks in Europe to SCOTUS uncertainty and rising farm losses, analysts say policy and global supply will shape grain markets in the year ahead.