Safe Boating

Boating safety isn`t just avoiding the rocks

By Roz Butziger
Posted 7/20/16

When we think of boating safety we think of wearing a life preserver, knowing the aids to navigation, and keeping a lookout, but your family could also be at risk from the food you have aboard. I looked at some ratings for coolers. Consumer Reports gave

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Safe Boating

Boating safety isn`t just avoiding the rocks

Posted

When we think of boating safety we think of wearing a life preserver, knowing the aids to navigation, and keeping a lookout, but your family could also be at risk from the food you have aboard. I looked at some ratings for coolers. Consumer Reports gave highest marks to the 18 qt. Coleman Party Stacker which weighs about 4 lbs empty. A close second was the Rubbermaid 20 qt. cooler for about $20.00, which, like the Coleman, kept ice frozen for a full day at 100 degrees F. The cooler that kept ice frozen twice as long was the Yeti, which weighs 15 lb empty and costs 12 times as much! Outdoor Gear Lab rated the 70 qt. Coleman Xtreme for around $80.00 as a top choice, followed by the Pelican ProGear Elite. About as good at keeping food cold was the22 qt. Lifoam, weighing only a little over half a pound, for $8.00, but of course this one is a disposable.

How you use your cooler makes a big difference. It is a good idea to have a separate cooler for drinks since this is the one that will be opened most often and will melt fastest. Block ice lasts much longer than cubes but is not readily available and is expensive when you find it. The best solution is to make your own. Many boaters and campers use rinsed out milk containers to freeze blocks. Allow at least a day for this. Tear off the cardboard before you put them in your cooler. Cardboard and plastic insulate the ice and it won’t cool the food as much. You might want to pour ice cubes over the blocks in the cooler to fill in the spaces, and be ready to fill glasses. And don’t let the kids hold the cooler open in the hot sun, pondering what to take out.

If you are going to be out for a few days, have a spoilage priority of what keeps longest and what to serve first. Hard cheese lasts a long time but cream filled pastries, milk, and chicken need a spot near the ice. Your home fridge may be about 39 or 40 degrees. Get a thermometer in your boat fridge. Also remember, if you have been off the boat for a few days, it is possible the dock power has gone out for some time. The fact that the temperature is 40 degrees now doesn’t mean it wasn’t considerably below that for some time. Store bought mayonnaise contains pasteurized eggs and vinegar and is not very likely to give you Salmonella, but should be kept cool. Undercooked chicken or raw eggs are the real culprits. We’ve all heard about the problems ground beef can cause. Cooking your burgers well is as important as storing them properly. And don’t use food that smells off, thinking that cooking will kill all contaminants. If food has spoiled, the bacteria may have already produced poisons. You can kill bacteria, but you can’t kill poison. 

Never put anything warm in the cooler. Chill it down in your fridge first. This works best if you spread it out in a zip lock bag and stick it in your freezer for a while.

So many great summer foods to choose from. Just make sure they are safe for your family.

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