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Food Safety First 

Hot Weather and Dairy Products

Diary products will spoil if not kept cool. Some safe food practices include:

Make grocery shopping your last errand before heading home.  This shortens the time your dairy products are without refrigeration.
At the store, get your dairy products, meats, and frozen foods last so that they stay cold longer.
Check expiration dates on your food items.
Have the perishable food items bagged separately. Perishable means foods that will spoil quickly if they are not keep cold.
Put your dairy products, meats, and frozen foods in an insulated container inside your car. The car's trunk will be much warmer than inside car.

When you get home, put dairy products and other perishable foods in the refrigerator right away. Refrigerator temperature should be between 34º and 40º F.  Freezer temperature should be 0º F or colder.

You should throw out soft cheeses such as cottage cheese and cream cheese with visible mold.

And always remember: When in doubt, throw it out!

Source:
Duryff, R.L. (1998). The American Dietetic Association's Complete Food and Nutrition Guide. Minneapolis, MN: Chronimed Publishing.

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Milk: It's Not Just for Kids. You never outgrow your need for milk and milk products.  The calcium in milk helps:

•    your heart beat
•    your muscles contract and relax
•    your nerves send messages
•    your blood clot

Without enough calcium in your diet, your body will steal calcium from your bones.  Over time, if you do not replace the calcium, your bones become brittle and weak.  This can lead to a crippling bone disease called osteoporosis.  The disease develops slowly. It may be years before you realize you have it. 

If you have osteoporosis, your weakened bones may break easily and you may develop a hunch back look. Anyone can develop osteoporosis but Caucasian women are at greater risk.  Diet, family history, and lifestyle also play an important part.
 

How much calcium do you need?
Age	How many milligrams  (mg)?	How much milk?
Young adults (11-24 years) OR Adults (65 or older)	1200-1500 (mg)   1500 mg	four-8 oz. glasses of milk OR 4 cups of yogurt or a combination of both
Adults (25-65 years old)	1000 mg	three 8-oz glasses of milk or 3 cups of yogurt

Dairy products, including yogurt and cheese, contain calcium. But, each food has different amounts of calcium. Read food labels to know which foods provide the most calcium.  Other good sources of calcium are broccoli, canned salmon with bones and juices with added calcium.

If you don't drink milk, you can still get calcium:

•    Eat soups, puddings and custard made with milk.
•    Add dry milk to casseroles, meat loaves, and scrambled eggs.
•    Top off a casserole, cooked vegetables or soup with your favorite cheese.
•    Add cheese to sandwiches or salads.
•    Add yogurt to fruit.

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Got the Best Milk Choice?  Today, there are many different types of milk products to choose from: goat's milk, soy milk, or rice milk. The most popular milk in America is still cow's milk. There are four basic types of cow's milk to choose from in the supermarket. Let's take a closer look at these choices by comparing a 1 cup serving of each type.
 

Type of milk (1 cup)	Percent Fat by Weight	Calories
Whole milk	3.3%	150
Reduced fat milk	2%	120
Low fat milk	1%	100
Skim or nonfat milk	less than 1%	85

Which milk is the best choice for your family? Since each person over the age of two should get no more than 30% of calories from fat, your best milk choice may be either skim or low fat. Children between the age of 1 to 2 years old should only drink whole milk.

Milk contains saturated fat, which  could lead to higher cholesterol levels and  greater risk for developing heart disease. So do your body and heart a favor by choosing the best milk for you and your family!

Sources:
Williams, S.R. (1995). Basic Nutrition and Diet Therapy, (10th ed.). Harcourt Health Sciences. pp. A6-A9. 
USDA Dietary Guidelines for American (1995) Home and Garden Bulletin No. 232 (4th ed.). p.27.

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Americans eat more ice cream June and July than other times of the year.

Vanilla is our favorite flavor of ice cream.

The top five flavors of ice cream in the U.S. are: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, butter pecan and Neapolitan.

But if you ask just the kids, you get a different answer. According to Prepared Foods (March 1995), kids ages six to 12 "very strongly" prefer Vanilla, Rocky Road, S'more, Cookie Dough, Chocolate and Peanut Butter.  Fruity flavors like cherry, banana, even watermelon, did well, too. Kids gave "thumbs down" to lemon, blueberry and cranberry.

Our favorite frozen yogurts are fruit flavored products  followed closely by vanilla, then chocolate.

Sources:
American Dairy Association and Mid East United Dairy Industry Association (fact sheets, no publication dates).

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Serving ice cream as a dessert, beverage or in another dish is easy, tasty and nutritious.  It is also a fun way to help family members get the calcium they need.  Ice cream has calcium, protein and riboflavin or vitamin B2. That makes it  more nutritious than pie, cake, candy, coffee and pop. Plus today's dairy industry offers low-fat ice cream and other frozen milk desserts for your family.

Try some of these creative ideas:

• For a snack put a scoop of orange/vanilla ice cream in a glass of orange juice. Blend it together until it is slushy.
• Make a refreshing fruit salad.  In the center of a cereal bowl place a scoop of frozen yogurt or ice cream with fruit.  Arrange assorted fresh fruit slices around it.
• Instead of a meringue topping for a stirred custard, substitute vanilla ice cream.
• Serve a milk shake instead of soda pop.
• For a tasty beverage, use a blender to mix milk, vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt and a half cup of your favorite diced fruit (i.e., strawberries, raspberries or bananas).

Let's compare these frozen desserts by calorie count.
 

1 cup of...	equals...
Frozen yogurt	144 calories
Ice milk	185 calories
Ice cream	270 calories

So if counting calories is important in your family meals, the frozen yogurt would be the better choice.

Sources: 
Saddam, A. M. Food for Thought. (April, 1990) OSU Extension Publication #75091.
National Dairy Council. Ice Cream. (1992)  Rosemont, IL. 
USDA Nutritive Value of Foods.
United State Department of Agriculture. Human Nutrition Information Service. Nutritive Value of Foods. Home And Garden Bulletin, No.72

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Pizza Buns

4 hamburger buns, sliced in half
1 small can (8 oz.) of your favorite pizza sauce
1 cup low-fat mozzarella cheese, shredded toppings of your choice (mushrooms, onion, green pepper, etc.)

Heat oven to 375  F. Lay the hamburger buns, cut sides up on a cookie sheet.  Spread each half of the bun with  pizza sauce and top with shredded mozzarella.  Add other toppings of your choice. Bake in oven until hot and cheese is melted (about 15 minutes).

Serves 4.

Source:
Eating Well...While Spending Less, Adapted from North Dakota State University by Sharron Coplin, M.S. R.D., Extension Associate, Food and Nutrition, 12/96.
 

Nutrient Facts for Pizza Buns Serving Size: 2 half buns Calories: 382         Calories from Fat: 162  % Daily Value* Total fat: 18g  Saturated fat: 4g 27 % 20 % Cholesterol: 16mg 5% Sodium: 750mg 31% Total carbohydrate: 48g Dietary Fiber: 4g Sugars: 2g 16% 15% Protein: 9g Vitamin A: 13% Vitamin C: 15% Calcium:     20% Iron:32% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

This material was produced with a grant from Midwest Region Food and Nutrition Service, United States Department of Agriculture.

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Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Keith L. Smith, Director, Ohio State University Extension.
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