How many times have we ran to the garage, grabbed a cooler, and threw some food, drinks, and ice in it? I certainly can’t count the times! We take for granted how dirty that cooler can get. Maybe we went on a fishing trip and reached our bare hands in to grab a drink or snack, rummaging through the ice. You may be at the County Fair, and just got done grooming your steer, then went for a nice cold drink to cool us off. Well, that can leave a lot of germs in our cooler. Maybe the ice ran out, and the drinks in the cooler got warm, so you just bought another bag of ice and threw it in to cool things down again.
As we start reaching warmer temperatures, more and more events are being planned. Usually, these involve food stands or picnics where we use portable coolers or ice chests to keep our food and drinks cold. In 2024, there was a Salmonella enterica outbreak at a county fair in Illinois that experts linked back to a cooler that was reused multiple days without proper cleaning, which led to contaminated ice. As a result, the cans in that cooler were contaminated. You might think that food or other factors contributed to that, but it was found no other contaminants were linked.
We need to be sure and clean our coolers after every use, even if it was just beverages that we had stored in there. Thoroughly wash and scrub the interior with warm water and soap to remove any residue, and rinse it out well. Afterwards, you can sanitize with a solution of one tablespoon bleach per gallon of water. Drain and let the cooler air dry completely. It’s better to be safer than sorry!
Information comes from K-State Extension Food Scientist, Karen Blakeslee.
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