Foods in the Mail: Shipping Food Safely (2352)

Sending food by mail or by other shipping service requires careful planning and packaging. Shipping can physically damage some foods. Some foods can become unsafe to eat when shipped. Most of the food safety problems are related to cured, smoked and fresh meats, poultry or fish. You must also handle cheeses and cheesecakes carefully.

Here are some tips for shipping these perishable foods. Consider them when you order a food gift for someone from a mail-order company, too.

- Ship canned or processed foods labeled "keep refrigerated" with a cold source, like dry ice. This includes most canned hams, summer sausages, and regular salami. The cold source must last long enough so that food arrives cold. Use an insulated shipping container.

- Ship fresh meats (like steaks), cooked meats, and smoked meats with a cold source, whether or not they are frozen. Freezing them first will extend the time period for the cold source. All hams, except for dry-cured country hams, need refrigeration. You must ship all smoked fish in insulated containers with a cold source or by refrigerated truck.

- Select a shipping service that takes the shortest possible time to deliver the food. Once you find out how long delivery will take, call the person you are shipping the food to and tell them you are sending them a package they will have to refrigerate or freeze.

- Cheeses usually do not need refrigeration, but do stay in better condition if you ship them with a cold source, particularly in hot weather. However, you need to freeze cheesecake and ship it with dry ice.

- Label the package as perishable food on the outside of the package, in large letters.

- People often mail cookies, candies, bars and other sweets, and they present few safety hazards unless they contain custards or cream cheeses. Skip recipes with these ingredients when you want to send cookies or bars. Plastic storage boxes make good lightweight shipping containers for these foods. If the cookies are crisp and fragile, they won’t ship well, but you can pack many cookies in dry-popped popcorn to provide some protection against breakage. If you ship food in hot weather or to a hot climate, skip ingredients, such as chocolate, that melt easily.

- Other foods that are easy to ship without risk include jams, jellies, relishes, jerky or hard, dry sausage, canned sauces or seasonings, nuts, dried fruits, hard candies, and many processed cheese products.

- If you receive any of these foods in the mail, check their condition right away to be sure that they are still completely cold or frozen. If they aren’t, don’t use them.

For more information on this subject, Please visit the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Web site.

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