BBQ Safety & Good Neighbours
Be Safe with a barbecue, avoid being a bad neighbour
Pre-warning of BBQs can often reduce the possibility of neighbour nuisance which is unintended.
BBQ Safety & Being a Good Neighbour:
Always place your BBQ as far away as you can from any buildings or neighbouring properties. Make sure your barbecue is positioned on a flat surface and is free from surrounding fences, shrubs, plants or sheds. Don't ever light a barbecue indoors!
Ensure that you light your barbecue well in advance, this gives you time to get your charcoal glowing red (with grey powdered edges) before you cook. Nobody likes to eat burnt, half-cooked food from a flaming BBQ! This could also be very dangerous to the barbecuer and could give cause to dangerous, leaping flames at you!
Tell Your Neighbours
Tell your neighbours about your BBQ in advance, if you can. Consider inviting them too if it's appropriate!
Pre-warning of BBQs can often reduce the possibility of neighbour nuisance which is unintended. Don't light it when your neighbours have their best sheets or washing hanging out to dry. If it's really windy try and check that the smoke from your barbecue won't blow straight into any properties that are neighbouring yours.
If the wind is going to carry your smoke into your neighbours backyard, try and move your barbecue to a more sheltered or secluded area. Please try and keep any smoke to the absolute minimum and take action if it gets to be a nuisance, put it out. If it rains, don't ever consider moving your BBQ to the garage.
Never, ever, leave a BBQ unsupervised and always be children and pet aware. Keep them all away from the BBQ cooking area. A bucket filled with water, sand or gravel next to your barbecue may be useful in case of any emergencies.
Don't light your BBQ with paraffin, lighter fuel or petrol. You may get severely burned and this is extremely dangerous. Keep your feast fun and safe.
Make sure the person or people in charge of fuelling and cooking the barbecue aren't full of booze! Alcohol is a great recipe for disaster and drunken or tipsy barbecuers may get careless or cause an accident due to impaired co-ordination and movements.
Remember! BBQs and booze can often follow on to 'bugs and burns'. Go steady and be careful if you're in charge of the BBQ cooking!
It may look pretty, but don't throw burning embers or papers into the open air. These are a serious fire safety risk to people, animals, buildings or property in the area. You may accidentally start a fire.
All about the grub!
It's all about the grub! Food is what Barbecues are all about, but remember:
Always wash your hands when you're about to prepare food and make sure you equally do this after you've been picking up any raw meats or poultry.
Any foods that are perishable need to be kept cool and make sure you store any ready to eat foods such as rice, pasta, dressings or salads covered. Throw away any perishable food after a maximum period of 4 hours if it's been left standing out in the open air.
Eat your food, as soon as it's ready - don't leave it laying or standing about if you don't need to. The local fly and insect population will thank you, but your BBQ eaters may not if it gives them a sickly aftertaste or develop Salmonella! Put cooked food needed for later in the refrigerator, don't leave it lying carelessly about.
Meats that are frozen must be fully defrosted before you BBQ them, unless their instructions say specifically otherwise. Defrosting can be done (follow the food packaging guidelines at all times) in the microwave or fridge before you BBQ them.
Meats and poultry must be cooked all the way through and until the juices run clear. To help in the cooking process consider pre-cooking poultry in your microwave and move it to the BBQ to finish the cooking process off. Where foods burn try making the grill height higher or lower the heat of your barbecue.
Your garden is bound to be less clean than your kitchen and as there are no readily available worktops outside, so food can often be badly thrown or placed in any available space. Plan your storage before you BBQ.
Try not to place raw and cooked foods together and place food on safe, clean surfaces, which are covered if possible. Insects may bother you if this isn't the case, but equally the microscopic variety of bugs can lead to major problems; Salmonella and E. Coli have a chance to rapidly multiply in half cooked or too quickly cooked foods, or barbecued food that has been left in the sun to rest before being eaten.
When you've finished, don't ever try and move a barbecue which is still lit or hot, leave it until it cools and make sure any coals left are totally cool before you clean or move the ashes.
For those of you who are gas powered using a gas barbecue you must make sure the gas tap is properly switched and turned off before you change the gas bottle; when you do change a bottle, do this in the open air. Turn off the gas when all cooking has finished.
Don't be a noisy neighbour! Keep the music and your noise down low. You may enjoy eating and drinking to your music collection, but your neighbours surely won't appreciate hearing the same noise pollution.
Always be polite and be aware, stop neighbour from hell issues occurring in the first place.