When you're preparing for a picnic, remember the golden food rule: Keep hot food hot and cold food cold. The temperature Danger Zone is between 40 degrees and 140 degrees, don't keep your food between those temperatures for more than two hours.
In fact, if you're at 90 degrees, food won't last for even one hour.
Here are five ways to help avoid food poisoning.
1 - To keep cold foods, like potato salad, in the safe zone, bring two bowls: Place a smaller bowl that's holding the food into a bigger bowl that's holding the ice.
2 - Along with ice packs, freeze bottled water ahead of time and use it to pack your cooler. You'll save space and the water can help keep your cooler in the safe temp zone.
3 - Sponges: If you get them wet, freeze them, and place them in a plastic bag, you can use them to keep your cooler cool as well. Plus they double as a clean-up tool when you're done.
4 - You can keep your bread from getting soggy if you place a piece of lettuce in between your bread and any condiments. And with peanut butter and jelly, spread peanut butter on both slices of bread, and put your jelly in the middle.
5 Cooler Corn: If you place ears of corn into a clean cooler, and dump boiling water over top of them, you'll have perfect corn that's ready in 20 minutes.