Its second year in the works, Tailgate Times, a publication produced by Auburn University’s Food Systems Institute, focuses on tailgating food, safety and history.
Though AUFSI first introduced Tailgate Times last year as a series of eBook issues released each home game, to promote the publication at a broader level, AUSFI began offering it for free instead of at the initial 99-cent charge, according to Karen Hunley, communications associate at AUFSI.
This year AUFSI published one free issue for the whole season to primarily address potential food safety concerns at tailgates such as undercooked food, improperly storing leftovers and leaving food outside for too long.
One issue related to tailgating food safety is properly maintaining a safe temperature for cold and hot foods, according to Joseph Hess, Extension specialist and poultry science professor.
Meat and poultry shouldn’t stay out for much more than an hour, Hess said.
Another common mistake is not cooking hamburgers correctly.
“If you grill steaks and they’re pink in the middle, it works,” Hess said. “You grill hamburgers and they’re pink in the middle, that’s dangerous. When you make hamburgers, you take everything that’s on the outside and you grind it up and you put it on the inside…If you don’t cook it fully through, bacteria are still there.”
Along with food safety, Tailgate Times features articles and excerpts on tailgating etiquette and facts as well as different tailgating recipes.
“We didn’t want to focus exclusively on just the safety,” Hunley said. “We wanted to sprinkle some fun stuff on there, too. That’s really our main goal—to make sure people have a fun and safe tailgate.”
AUFSI worked with Alabama Extension System, Auburn Alumni Association, Auburn Fire Division and Auburn University Department Public Safety and Security to compile the different articles on the website, Hunley said.
This year’s publication also included a section on green tailgating to coincide with the 2015 “Auburn Goes Green” game, which celebrated the University’s efforts toward sustainability.
Tailgate Times served as another form of outreach for the Office of Sustainability, according to Jennifer Morse, communications and outreach manager for the Office of Sustainability.
“One of our efforts is to try to instill practices and an ethic and culture of sustainability,” Morse said. “And educating people on what they can do to make a difference—everything adds up. I think the more connections and places you go with your message, you’re going to influence more people. It’s part of the package of everything we do when we have something go on.”
This year AUFSI distributed hard copies of the Tailgate Times at Ag Roundup during the homecoming game, though all full-length articles can be found on the website.
“Our main goal this year was just to kind of help get the word out about it a little bit more and get people familiar with it, so maybe next year we’ll go back to the sort of digital iBook version of it and maybe do several different issues again and offer it through iTunes,” Hunley said.
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