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Food Safety on the Trail
Roberta Cobb
This week's Oregonian discusses illegal potluck dinners. The 'potluck police' aim to protect the public from illness due to improper personal hygiene, food preparation or storage. We're told to wash our hands; we must "keep hot food hot (above 140°) and cold food cold (below 40°)." I agree that the restaurants should closely monitor their food safety. I get frustrated when this extends to a level of paranoia in homes of perfectly healthy adults. On the trail, how many of us really wash our hands as often as we should? As for food temperatures, keeping food at the 'proper' temperatures is impractical on a distance hike. It's amazing, but most of us stay healthy.
I hydrate my lunches with whatever temperature water I filter out of the stream at whatever temperature the day happens to be, and the food and water slosh in my pack for a couple of hours before I eat. The potluck police would frown on this. But for me, I am a strong adult with a healthy immune system, so it's OK. I don't recommend this for people with compromised immunities, but they aren't out hiking a long distance trail. I also doubt that 2 hours from dry food to eating is enough time to develop too many bad bugs in the food (under normal circumstances of course). The potluck police would disagree with me I'm sure.
The potluck police would not license my kitchen. I don't have a dishwasher, and I don't use anti-bacterial soap. But I do take care. I keep a very clean dehydrator and I'm cautious in the preparation of the food to store in my resupply boxes. I pay attention to whether the food is dry enough, and I vacuum seal it to keep any other beasties away. I store the dried food in the freezer, which provides further protection. Although I don't use artificial preservatives, I've processed the food enough that I feel confident it will last the 3-4 weeks in storage at my resupply location. So far in the 8 or so years I've been doing this, it's worked out.
I have also learned a few tricks. I package oil separately from the rest of the food so that I'm not drying high-fat food. I vacuum seal chunks of cheese; the smaller surface area as opposed to grated cheese and sealing it keeps the cheese longer. From experience I know that lasagna doesn't keep as long, so I mark it to eat early in the trip, or I set it to be brought with a friend at a meeting point, to minimize the time it's out of the freezer.
According to the Oregonian, a meeting like the ALDHA-West Gathering is considered a private party or private function and no license is required. Whew, no potluck police. If you've got good homemade trail food, bring samples and the recipe. See you at the Gathering.