Welcome  to  Public  Health  moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. Summer  is  here  a  season  when  many  of  us  cherish  the  time. We  spend  a  family  picnics or  at  the  backyard  barbecue  grill, but  it's  also  a  time  to  take special  care  in  how  we  handle  and  cook  food, says  Craig  Hedberg,  a  food safety  expert  at  the  University  of  Minnesota. Every  summer  we  see  a  spike  in  the  occurrence  of  food borne  diseases  like  salmonella  and  E.  Coli  157. There  are  several  important  things people  need  to  keep  in  mind. The  first  one  is  always  hand  washing. It's  always  important  to  wash  your  hands  before you  cook  or  handle  food  and  before  you  eat  food. Hedberg  adds  that  you  should  make sure  to  keep  cold  foods  cold. Use  a  cooler,  and  don't  allow  food  to sit  outside  uneaten  for  more  than  2  H. The  third  thing  is  making  sure  that  when  we  are cooking  meats  and  poultry  on  the  grill, that  we're  cooking  them  thoroughly  to  kill  any  pathogen, salmonella  or  coli  that  may  be  present. And  that  we  make  sure  that  when we're  working  with  raw  meats  and  cooking  them, that  we  don't  contaminate our  fresh  produce  with  the  raw  meat  juices. With  another  public  health  moment,  I'm  John  Finnegan.