Food in a power outage...

RowanJ13

Hey all. Posting from my phone as my power has been out for a bit over 5 hours and they're predicting it's going to be off for at least another hour and a half. That could change because they kEep pushing it back. Question is, am I going to have to throw out all the healthy food in my fridge that I just bought YESTERDAY? Sigh.

steve_mfp

USDA says after 4 hours you gotta toss certain things:

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/emergency-preparedness/a-consumers-guide-to-food-safety-severe-storms-and-hurricanes/ct_index

However, depending on the quality of the fridge and from what i've personally experienced with power loss (6+hours) , we never opened the fridge and everything was fine. Although any meat was in the freezer.

Shuuma

If you're really concerned, is it possible to set up an ice chest with some ice to keep your fresh food cool? Or maybe throw everything into the freezer until the power is back on? Are you in a cold part of the country? Can you use your garage as a temporary fridge?

aimeev2

We were recently without power for 18 hours -- after having just done our food shopping for the week. I went back to the store, bought a few bags of ice, added them to the fridge then kept the door closed. Then we ended up eating everything we'd bought, but all meat we cooked very thoroughly. The only thing we had to throw out were a couple of fresh crab cakes.

While I was a bit squeamish about doing this, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, I just wanted to let you know we were okay. Your mileage may vary, though, so go with what your gut tells you

RowanJ13

Thanks guys, it just came back on after about 5.5 hours. The fridge was only opened once and it still feels pretty cool in there, so I think (hope) it should all be ok. What a pain!