These Food Safety Tips Will Help You Make the Most of Your Meal Delivery Service
Meal kit and grocery delivery services can make life way more convenient, especially when you’re gearing up for a week of workouts, because these types of prepackaged meals can reduce the time—and stress—it takes to decide what to eat.
Plus, they are much healthier than they used to be—no more mystery meat-containing TV dinners from days of old. Today’s kits also pack the necessary vitamins, minerals, protein, healthy fats, and healthy carbs to help you power your rides and recover from them.
But could these timesavers actually put you at risk for getting sick if you don’t pay close enough attention to the quality of your kit’s contents—and throw your training out of whack?
A Rutgers and Tennessee State University study presented at the 2017 Food Safety Summit that tested food from 169 meal kits—including entrees of 271 meat items, 235 seafood items, 133 game items, and 39 poultry items—found nearly half of the ingredients arrived at temperatures above 40 degrees upon delivery. That’s the temperature at which illness-causing bacteria can start to grow. (It’s worth noting that food was much colder when packed with dry ice versus gel packs—temps ranged from minus 23 degrees for the former to 75 degrees for the latter.) Other independent tests, including ones conducted by private companies and local news stations, have also found high contamination rates.
Because many services like Dinner Thyme Marketplace and Blue Apron use dry ice for shipping, hopefully this scenario isn’t playing out all that often. What is more common is if your kit—whether it’s shipped long-distance or driven over from a market nearby—is left sitting outside for a while before you’re able to put it in to the fridge or freezer. That can create conditions encouraging the growth of illness-causing bacteria like E. coli or salmonella.
A case of food poisoning—which is usually marked by symptoms like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and chills—will likely keep you off the road or treadmill until you recover. And even afterward, you might still be off your game.
“Even if it lasts for just 24 hours, your glycogen will be pretty depleted and you’ll run out of steam much more quickly when you head out for your next workout,” explains sports dietitian Kelly Jones, R.D., C.S.S.D.
The key is being aware of the potential risks, taking steps to keep your food safe, and knowing when to just not eat something. Since it’s better to be safe than sorry, a food safety expert recommends a few ways to make sure your delivered meals are safe to consume.
Signs Your Food Might Not Be Safe for Consumption
Meal and grocery delivery services aren’t death traps. But “food safety is definitely an issue you should keep in mind whenever you use these services,” says Katie Heil, CP-FS, a certified food safety professional at StateFoodSafety. This is especially important to keep in mind during the summer months or if you live in an area that’s warm year-round, since higher outdoor temps up the risk for spoilage.
While the research on contaminated meal kits and groceries is limited, the evidence we do have suggests temperature problems can occur more often than you might think.
When stored above 40 degrees, perishable food can become a breeding ground for illness-causing bacteria within two hours, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says. That timeframe shrinks to one hour if the temp is over 90 degrees.
Still, you shouldn’t just rely on the clock to tell you whether a food is safe to eat. Weird smells or colors, ice crystals or puddles in frozen food packaging, or meat that retains the imprint of your finger when you press on it are all signs to steer clear, Heil says.
You can’t always tell whether a food is contaminated just by looking at it, though. According to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the only way to gauge whether food is a safe temperature is by measuring it with a food thermometer. As long as an item is below 40 degrees, you’re good to go. But if it’s any higher than that? Toss it. (That goes for raw perishable ingredients as well as smoked, cured, vacuum packed, or fully cooked foods, the CDC notes.)
You don’t necessarily have to throw out the entire kit or grocery bag though. If other items are still at a safe temp and are individually wrapped, you should be okay, Heil says.
If you didn’t check your food’s temps and throw it in the fridge anyway, keep a close eye out for any of the above warning signs that your food might not be safe to eat when you’re ready to cook it. And again, if your food came packed in dry ice rather than gel packs, there’s a better chance your food didn’t spoil.
Tips for Keeping Delivered Food Safe
The Rutgers and Tennessee State University researchers also interviewed over 1,000 customers and reviewed over 400 food delivery vendor websites in the U.S. They found that most deliveries sat outside for eight or more hours before being opened and refrigerated—and only 5 percent of services require a signature for the package.
The best way to ensure that your food stays at a safe temperature is to get it into the refrigerator or freezer within two hours of delivery. “Whenever possible, schedule your delivery for a time when you’ll be home so you can bring the food inside immediately,” Heil recommends. “Depending on how warm it is, it should be okay to schedule the delivery within one to two hours of getting home.”
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When that’s not possible, ask a family member or friend to take the food inside for you. Another potential option: You could also have the food delivered to your workplace, provided there’s a fridge where the food can be stored until you can bring it home, Heil says.
And again, don’t let the clock be your only gauge. It’s possible for food to be at an unsafe temperature before even making it to your doorstep. To be sure you’re in the clear, do a quick temp check before packing your food into the fridge or freezer. Even if it takes a few extra minutes, it’s always worth it to keep you feeling—and riding—your best.
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