In the event you don’t have a generator to maintain your fridge or freezer going throughout an influence outage, you’ll be able to find yourself with lots of heat, thawed-out meals. Is that this meals nonetheless suitable for eating after an influence outage?
Earlier than you toss out all that meals, right here’s what you should know.
Throughout a Energy Outage:
You could hold your fridge and freezer closed throughout an influence outage. Fashionable fridges and freezers have wonderful insulation and hold meals chilly (and thus suitable for eating) for a very long time, even when turned off or unplugged.
Every time you open the doorways, you let a few of the chilly air out – thus lowering the time the meals continues to be suitable for eating.
- An unopened fridge will hold meals chilly for 4 hours
- An unopened full freezer will hold meals chilly for 48 hours
- An unopened half-full freezer will hold the temperature for twenty-four hours
- Use Dry Ice: 50lbs of dry ice will hold an 18 cubic foot, full freezer chilly for 2 days
Word: Don’t put meals outdoors throughout a snowstorm to maintain it chilly. As a substitute, put containers of water outdoors to make ice. Put these ice containers in your fridge and freezer.
Additionally learn: Meals which don’t require refrigeration
When the Energy Is Restored:
- Verify the freezer temperature. Whether it is 40F or under, the meals inside is suitable for eating or refreeze.
- In the event you don’t have a freezer thermometer, examine the meals for ice crystals. It’s suitable for eating or refreeze if it nonetheless has ice crystals.
- It needs to be suitable for eating perishable refrigerated meals if the ability outage lasts not more than 4 hours and the fridge was saved shut.
Use the desk under to find out whether or not you need to discard or save meals.
| Meals Sort | Held at 40F for greater than 2 hours or 90F for 1 hour or extra |
|---|---|
| Eggs (cooked, recent, or egg merchandise akin to mayonnaise) | Discard |
| Dairy (milk, cream, yogurt, child system) | Discard |
| Butter, margarine, shortening | Secure |
| Exhausting cheeses and processed cheeses | Secure |
| Delicate cheeses (Brie, cottage cheese, ricotta, and so forth.) | Discard |
| Fruits, jams and jellies | Secure |
| Greens (cooked, uncooked minimize or vegetable juices) | Secure, however discard if above 45F for greater than 1 day or above 50F for greater than 8 hours |
| Baked potatoes | Discard |
| Cooked meals (casseroles, soups, stews, and so forth.) | Discard |
| Meat, poultry or fish | Discard |
| Pastries (stuffed with cream or cheese) | Discard |
| Breads, muffins, biscuits, and cookies | Secure |
| Fruit pies | Secure |
| Condiments (ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, olives, vinegar-based salad dressings, and so forth.) | Secure, however discard if above 45F for greater than 1 day or above 50F for greater than 8 hours |
| Creamy condiments, fish sauce | Discard |
| Peanut butter | Secure |
Word: These pointers are based mostly on suggestions by authorities companies just like the CDC and USDA – which frequently err on the facet of warning. Use your finest judgment when figuring out in case you ought to throw away meals after an influence outage or not!
