Beach foods are usually pretty simple, but they still need to be stored correctly if they are going to remain safe to eat throughout the day.
Here are eight hacks for transporting and storing your beach foods safely and securely.
It’s hard to beat a tasty snack at the beach. Whether your whole day consists of relaxing under an umbrella and watching the waves, or you are busy with your favorite beach sport and simply need a snack to refuel, keeping your food protected until snack time is essential.
Whether you want to satisfy your sweet tooth or you just want to pack up some practical foods to keep everyone energized, bringing food with you to the beach is key for a fun outing.
There are two sure-fire ways to make sure you have great food at the beach – making a good plan and having the right equipment.
#1 Containers for Everything
It’s easy enough to just decide that some of your beach foods can travel for the day in their original packaging. While that might work for something like a bag of chips, everything else should be put into a sealable container if at all possible. Having a collection of containers on hand at home for this purpose will make packing for a day at the beach far easier.
There are two notable benefits to be enjoyed when you put everything in containers before you head to the beach:
- First, it makes it easier to pack your cooler, because all of your items will have protection from everything else inside the box. Basically, you can stack everything up without worrying about damage or contamination from one container to the next.
- Second, when you take your foods out at the beach to enjoy a snack or a full-on meal, having a container with a lid is great for keeping sand away. Throughout your beach day, make it a point to put the lid back on containers when not actively grabbing food and you’ll avoid losing some of your supply to gusty winds and stray grains of sand.
#2 Consider Two Coolers
Hauling just a single cooler to the beach could work for quick trips to the beach with only a couple of people, but using two coolers is often more effective.
With the dual-cooler strategy, you can dedicate one to beverages and one to food items. In addition to the obvious advantage of gaining space, you’ll also be able to keep your food cooler closed more often so the food can stay cool. When you need a drink, you can open up that cooler to retrieve a beverage without having to open the food cooler and allow some of the cold air to escape.
The key here is owning the right size coolers for the job. If you have a large truck you take to the beach, it won’t be a problem – just get a couple of full-size coolers and toss them in the back before heading to the beach.
However, if you have a smaller vehicle, shopping strategically for your coolers is important. Consider finding a big cooler for food and then a smaller model that can be tucked into the car for beverages. You could also consider a soft-sided cooler bag for your drinks, since those are easier to pack into tight spaces.
#3 Finger Foods Rule the Day
When possible, pack foods for your beach day that can be easily eaten with just your hands. It’s easier to pass out small plates to pile up with finger foods than it is to also need utensils for those various items.
Also, when trying to eat food with a utensil, you may need somewhere to set down your plate – and flat, firm surfaces can be hard to find at the beach. Do your best to plan a beach snacks finger food menu for your next beach trip so you don’t wind up making things harder than they need to be.
#4 Start with Cold Food
It will be much easier to keep your drinks and food cool if your food starts out cold in the first place. This is one of the best cooler hacks and it’s a simple one to execute… as long as you plan ahead. This is one of those tips that seems obvious but you may not have thought of it!
Know what you are going to keep in your cooler during your day at the beach and put it in the refrigerator the night before. That way, the ice in your cooler won’t have to do the work of bringing these items down to a cool temperature – they’ll be starting there and will only need to be maintained. This will lessen the burden on your ice packs and make it more likely that all the snacks in the cooler will stay at the appropriate temperature for the duration of your trip.
#5 Create a Cooler Zone
This is one of our favorite cooler hacks and we think you will find it to be very helpful in organizing and managing your day at the beach!
When you pick out a spot on the beach to claim as your own for the day, think about creating a “cooler zone” that serves as the central location where you’ll buzz around as you play and relax. More than just a place to keep your snacks cool, this is going to be like your portable kitchen on the beach, and everyone will know where to come back and hang out when it’s time for a drink or a meal.
What does a cooler zone look like for a beach day?
Set up an umbrella
For starters, put up an umbrella and position your cooler so it stays in the shaded area under that umbrella and out of the sun. Of course, you’ll probably need to move the cooler a couple of times during the day as the sun moves through the sky, but keeping your cooler shaded is worth the effort. It will stay colder for longer if it is in the shade than out under the blazing sun. Also, if you have kids with you who want to hang out by the cooler, they’ll be in the shade, as well.
Spread out your beach blanket
Once your umbrella is set up, spread out a beach blanket and place the cooler on top. This way, the blanket will prevent too much sand from coming too close to the cooler, and the cooler will serve as a weight to keep the blanket in place.
Enjoy your food sand free!
Now, when you come around to create some vegetables for a snack, or pull out the meat to fire up your portable grill, you won’t have to worry about having sand getting in your way. And, when the kids want to grab something out of the cooler and plop down for a snack, they can do so on the blanket and not directly on the sand.
#6 Keep It Closed
Okay, so this is one of those ideas that isn’t really breaking news, but it’s a good reminder if you haven’t been actively using a cooler very much lately.
One of the key rules to using a cooler out on the beach is to keep it closed as much as possible throughout the day. Consistently opening the lid only to take a quick sip of water and put the bottle back is going to make it hard to keep everything cold.
This is a mistake commonly made by kids, so keep a close eye on the little ones and explain to them that they need permission before opening up the cooler to look around. Also, pay particular attention to this key if you have meat in the cooler, since you could ruin your whole meal by not keeping the meat cold enough until it is time to cook.
#7 Alternative Ice Packs
Some form of ice is essential in a cooler, of course, but you might feel like you are wasting space by adding ice packs that can’t be consumed. All that room at the bottom of the cooler could better be used for something that you could eat or drink – which is why this point is another one of our favorite cooler hacks.
Here, you are going to use frozen water bottles as alternative ice packs to cool things down and also bring additional hydration. The bottles will gradually thaw during the day, so they’ll eventually turn from ice packs into cool drinks. Most likely, you’ll still need a couple of dedicated ice packs or bags of ice to provide cooling power, with the bottles serving a supporting role.
#8 Fill It Up
Finally, we need to emphasize the importance of filling up your cooler as thoroughly as possible when packing up for the beach.
The laws of thermodynamics dictate that your foods and drinks will stay cooler when more stuff is in the space, as opposed to keeping it half empty. If you simply don’t need to bring that much stuff along with you for the day, lean on the tips above and pack extra frozen water bottles for a cheap way to fill up the space – and, of course, you can never have too much fresh water while spending your day hanging out by the surf.
We hope you have fun out there!
