by Joan Mccord

Created on: May 11, 2010   Last Updated: June 27, 2010

Whether you are preparing food in your own kitchen, on a camping trip, or backpacking on your favorite trail, one of the first rules of food safety is, keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

Plan to travel to the campsite with your food chilled and in a container that will hold it safely during your trip. Always use a thermometer to be sure temperatures have not risen into the danger zone where food is most likely to make you sick.

If you will be hiking with a backpack, weight can become more important than what you actually have to eat. Non-perishable foods are best, but perishables packed with frozen boxed drinks to keep them cool can be more substantial and filling during a long trek. Eat them first and you will lighten your load as you hike.

If you are driving to the campsite, transporting food and keeping it safe is simpler.

Styrofoam coolers are lightweight and cheap. They are not extremely durable, but are excellent to safely transport and hold cold food during your stay at the campsite and to contain and transport trash when you clean up.

Plastic, fiberglass, or steel coolers are more durable and can be expected to last through numerous trips; expect them to be heavy when fully loaded.

Ice, either cubes or blocks, to chill a drink or apply a soothing ice pack to a strain or insect bite is handy. Put this ice for consumption in a separate cooler, with a scoop, so that it stays clean and fresh. Occasionally, open the drain near the bottom of the cooler and discard any water that might collect.

Drinks and snacks should be stored in a separate cooler placed in a convenient location at the campsite; this cooler will be opened often and is not appropriate for storage of your more fragile food.

Fresh fruits, nuts, trail mix, and canned snacks like peanut butter and jelly do not need to be stored in a cooler until opened; then close the containers tightly and put them in the snack cooler. Frozen gel packs are ideal to keep things chilled.

Gel packs are cheap, and as long as they are not damaged, can be stored in the freezer and reused. They are ideal for any number of uses, even to toss into a cooler and transport perishables from the supermarket on a hot summer's day.

Pack your food storage cooler this way:

If you do not have a supply of gel packs, blocks of ice frozen into empty milk cartons will work, but they are heavy, take valuable space, and usually generate some collection of water from melting ice in the bottom

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