Keep bacteria off the menu

Thinking about that slab of tuna just about makes Che Perez's stomach turn. The 40-year-old Web designer remembers a scorching July day many summers ago and a barbecue at his cousin's house.

The cookout was more like ground zero for gastrointestinal distress.

"It was a good 20-minute drive to the house, and even with the air conditioner on, the sun was beating down on my fresh tuna," says Perez. "When I got there, I just threw the fish on the barbecue and cooked it medium, or medium-rare. It was delicious, but about 30 minutes later I started throwing up violently."

We'll spare the rest of the gory details, but let's just say Perez learned his lesson: Keep your fresh fish on ice when driving to a cookout.

These sorts of food-safety reminders are in order as the outdoor grilling season kicks into gear. Perez, of Sacramento, Calif., is the kind of guy who grills two to three days a week, rain or shine.

But you've got to be careful behind that barbecue grill or in the kitchen. Food-safety experts have found that one in four people gets sick each year from a foodborne illness. The effects can sometimes turn deadly. Ingest a strain of E. coli 0157:H7, found in contaminated produce, ground beef and other animal products, and the result could be kidney failure or death.

The good news: Properly handling and cooking food can significantly reduce the risk of catching some nasty foodborne illness, along with keeping pesticides and chemicals off our plates.

Here are some food-safety tips compiled from experts at the University of California, Davis, and other sources.

Don't expect to see rare meat when Christine Bruhn bites into a hamburger. She researches food safety and consumer issues at University of California at Davis' Department of Food Science and Technology, and she knows it doesn't take much undercooked ground beef to make a person seriously sick.

"Just 10 cells of E. coli can send a person to the hospital," says Bruhn. "Life's too precious to spend hours bent over the toilet, or worse."

Here are some tips from Bruhn to keep in mind during your cookouts:

—Be careful of cross-contamination: "Some people use the same plate to carry both the raw and cooked (food). People might rinse the plate, but those bacteria are still there. Water is not enough. You need a clean plate."