When it comes to food gifts, Iowa companies opt for safety over surprise

From candy and cookies to hams and steaks, food gifts continue to grow in popularity, according to a 2014 report from market researcher Packaged Facts.

But when you find a food gift in your mailbox or on your doorstep during the holidays, how do you know the food - which may have traveled hundreds of miles - is safe to eat?

'If it's a perishable food - meat, poultry, some cheeses - they want to make sure the box is cold,” said Marianne Gravely, a technical information specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Meat and Poultry Hotline. 'It's awful when somebody comes home and a package has been on the steps for days and the cold source is no longer effective.”

To remain safe to eat, perishable food should be kept below 40 degrees or over 135 degrees. Foods shouldn't stay in the zone between for more than a few hours because bacteria might grow to levels that cause illness, the USDA reports.

Iowa companies that produce popular food gifts spend a lot of time and money to make sure that doesn't happen.

The Amana Meat Shop & Smokehouse sends nearly 20,000 food gifts each year, with most shipping between Thanksgiving and Christmas, said Charisse Lawrence, director of the meat shop catalog. Besides the beloved Amana ham, the company ships sausage, bacon, cheese, steaks and tenderloins.

'We make sure all food gifts arrive in two days,” Lawrence said. Fully cooked hams and sausages aren't sent with a cold source, but fresh meat is packaged with dry ice inside a foam cooler, she said.

Maytag Dairy Farms, near Newton, sends its famously veiny blue cheese, as well as other cheese, in specially lined boxes with ice bricks, President Myrna Ver Ploeg said.

'We've tested every product we can get our hands on,” she said.

The ice bricks can last up to a week, but most orders arrive within three days, she said.

Delivering cheese in a fresh, food-safe manner is so important to Maytag, it has two employees who constantly track packages, Ver Ploeg said. One person monitors the temperature in areas where packages are headed to determine whether expedited shipping is needed. A second employee follows packages to make sure they are scheduled to arrive on time.

One way gift-givers can make sure their food gift doesn't spoil is to alert the recipient a gift will be arriving and make sure they provide proper delivery instructions, Gravely said. For example, if recipients never use their front door, they might miss a package there.

Spoiling the surprise of a food gift is better than letting the food gift spoil, she said. Even if perishable food gifts arrive cold, Gravely recommends refrigerating or freezing them immediately.