There are many outdoor activities that you and your family love. There are camping, hiking, fishing, boating, picnicking, backyard cookouts and many more. And all these events have one thing in common and that is food.

To make sure that your family only eats food that are delicious and safe at the same time, here are some tips regarding food storage and preparation that you can follow:

1. Plan your meals. This will give you an overview of the ingredients you need. Aside from that, pre-cook and measure some of the ingredients at home so you save time and energy in preparing the meals.

2. Check on the people you’re going camping with to know if they have allergic reactions to any particular food, ingredient or condiment so you know what to stay away from. A cousin bloating red because of the anchovies you included in the pizza won’t be a nice reminder of your outing.

3. Opt for foods and ingredients that will not spoil easily. This means that your kid’s favourite tomato pasta is out of the menu for this trip.

4. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Since it’s more difficult to keep hot foods without a heat source, it’s better to pack mostly cold food. Use a coleman coolers to keep your food frozen.

5. Use a powerful coleman coolers if you intend to stay for a couple of days. The Coleman 54 Quart Steel Belted® Cooler for example is an ideal cooler for longer vacations because its cold keeping power can keep ice up to 3 days at temperatures up to 100.

6. When cooking always cover pots and pans to prevent unwanted creatures from landing on your dish. Do the same with the plates on the table to keep them clean.

7. Speaking of clean, keep everything clean by bringing a handy pack of disposable wipes and hand sanitizer.

8. Wash your hands thoroughly before handling food and after handling raw meat because this has bacteria on it that can easily spread through hand contact.

9. To always be on the safe side, bring your own bottled water. You can keep water cool in your stainless water cooler, ready to quench anybody’s thirst anytime.

10. Pack your steel cooler with ice but don’t just place ice on top of the chest but in between each food container so that the foods’ freshness are evenly preserved.

11. Keep your steel cooler out of the sun. If possible cover the top with a blanket especially if the temperature gets too warm.

12. Don’t pack too much food so there will be no leftover. Discard leftover if you’re not sure if they are still safe to be eaten. Remember, it’s always better safe than sorry.

Food is the main factor for a successful outdoor activity. And because of this, it’s of utmost importance that food is prepared properly to avoid any unfortunate incidents of food poisoning or food related sickness.