Food Spoilage and Power Outages

Severe weather over the past week has left thousands of homes in our area without power in some cases for more than 24 hours. One of the unfortunate consequences of a long term power outage is that food in your refrigerator may be spoiled as a result.

While power outages under 4 hours should have no ill affect on most foods, outages beyond 4 hours can cause food to spoil rapidly. The USDA has a fantastic website which can provide tips on how to try and salvage food in the event of a power outage or flood, and also has a chart which gives you a useful primer on what to keep and what to discard from your refrigerator in the event of a long term loss of power. The chart and more information can be found at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/keeping_food_safe_during_an_emergency/index.asp.

If you are one of the many who have been affected by this power outage, please check out the above link. And remember, if there is a question about whether or not something is still good, the old adage of "when in doubt, throw it out" is always a safe choice!