Going camping is big fun, whether its an RV trip or a trip to a camping site the last thing we want to happen on our trip is getting sick. The problem is that keeping food safe and cleaning up in the right way are often things that dont quite work out as planned and leads to someone or everyone getting sick. Getting sick can cut the trip but even worse is you could be stuck out in the middle of nowhere with no help.
Food safety while camping, tip 1 – Our skin is full of bacteria, some good and some bad. The best way to avoid any transfer of germs onto food is to simply wash your hands and never forget to keep washing them, especially before you touch food.
Safety tip 2 – Water safety, make sure that any water you drink is safe. The worst thing that you can do is drink water right out of a lake or a stream. Whether or not you believe the water to be fresh is beside the point. You should not do this, it is purely not safe. You risk doing yourself a lot of damage. If your only source of water is a lake or a stream them you have to boil the water for at least a minute.
Safety tip 3 – Prevent cross-contamination – Cross-contamination is defined as the transfer of germs from one person to another, food to food, object to object, and surface to surface. Basically from one place to another. The main thing to look out for here is to not use the same surface that was used to clean raw meat as you would to clean something that is cooked and ready for eating. For example, cutting raw chicken on one board and then using the same board to cut some bread to make a sandwich with. Doing that would lead to extreme food poisoning.
Safety tip 4 – This tip also has to do with cross-contamination except that it does not involve food. It involves public toilets and showers that are present in public camping sites. Before you use any public toilet or shower, it is a wise decision to first clean them properly so as to not get any of the germs that are there onto you. It can seem like a daunting task to clean all these things but it really is worth it and not worth the risk of not doing it. A very handy tool that is going to help you get the job done quicker is a microfiber mop. These are usually flat and wide which means the mop will cover a lot of ground in no time and get the job done quickly.
