Last updated: 17 August 2026
Food Safety Information
How To Make BBQ publishes general educational information about cooking and food storage. The storage times, temperatures and handling limits on this site are drawn from published guidance by the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service and FoodSafety.gov, and we cite those sources in the guides themselves.
This information is general, not specific to your food. We cannot see, smell or test the meat in your fridge. Storage conditions, how long something sat in a warm car, how cold your refrigerator actually runs, and how the food was handled before you bought it all change the answer, and none of it is visible to us.
Use our guides to understand what the signs mean and what the published limits are. The final judgement about a specific piece of food is yours. When it is genuinely close, throw it out.
Not Medical Advice
Nothing on this site is medical advice, and we are not doctors or public health officials. If you believe you have eaten contaminated food, or you have symptoms of foodborne illness, contact a doctor or your local health service. Do not delay medical care because of something you read here.
Seek medical attention promptly for a fever above 102°F, blood in the stool, vomiting persistent enough that you cannot keep liquids down, signs of dehydration, or diarrhoea lasting more than three days. Take symptoms more seriously in young children, pregnant women, adults over 65, and anyone with a weakened immune system.
In the United States, the USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline answers questions about specific food, free, on 1-888-674-6854.
Allergies and Dietary Requirements
Recipes and ingredient suggestions on this site are not checked for allergens. If you cook for someone with a food allergy or a medical dietary requirement, check every ingredient and product label yourself.
Cooking Safely
Barbecue involves live fire, hot metal, hot fat and heavy equipment. Follow the safety instructions that came with your grill or smoker, keep children and pets away from a live cooker, and never use charcoal or gas equipment indoors or in an enclosed space — carbon monoxide from a barbecue can be fatal. You are responsible for your own safety and that of the people around you.
Accuracy
We check our figures against the sources named above, and we update guides when official guidance changes. Even so, guidance is revised over time and mistakes are possible. If you find something on this site that contradicts current USDA guidance, tell us through the contact page and we will correct it.
Where a figure is barbecue practice rather than published safety guidance — pull temperatures, resting times, how to run a smoker — we say so in the guide. Those are matters of technique and preference, not safety standards.
Affiliate Disclosure
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. This does not change what we recommend or what our guides say.
We only mention equipment where it genuinely matters to the outcome — a thermometer in an article about doneness, a cooler in an article about holding meat hot. No brand has paid for a mention on this site. If that ever changes, the content will be labelled as sponsored.
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Limitation of Liability
The content on this site is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind. To the fullest extent permitted by law, How To Make BBQ accepts no liability for any loss, illness, injury or damage arising from the use of, or reliance on, information published here. Your use of this site is at your own risk.
External Links
We link to outside websites, including government food safety pages, for reference. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content or availability.