The high winds that blew through our area last week as Hurricane Katrina moved north, left many of our members without power for a few hours, some for a day or more. Some of the most frequent questions we get during an extended outage are food safety questions. Following is information to help answer those questions.
If you live in an area where loss of electricity from seasonal storms is a problem, plan ahead to be prepared for the worst.
When it happens to your Freezer...
Keep the freezer closed. Open the door as little as possible to keep cold air inside the freezer for as long as possible. You will be relieved to know that a full, freestanding freezer will stay at freezing temperatures about 2 days; a half-full freezer about 1 day. So try to limit the number of times that you open your freezer until power is restored.
If your freezer is
not full, quickly group packages together to insulate the food and maintain the
coldest possible temperature. And if you think the power will be out for several
days, try to find some dry ice. (Check your local telephone directory listing
for "ice".) Follow the handling instructions carefully. Dry ice can
cause burns, therefore do not handle dry ice with bare hands. Dry ice can be
placed in a freezer wrapped in several layers of newspaper or paper bags. Allow
2 1/2 - 3 pounds of dry ice per cubic foot of freezer space. More will be needed
in an upright freezer because dry ice should be placed on each shelf.
If food has started to thaw, what can safely be kept?
Evaluate each item
separately. Be careful with meat, poultry, fish and shellfish products, foods
containing eggs, milk, cream, sour cream, soft cheese and all cooked foods. When
in doubt, throw it out! The risk of food poisoning is never worth the
cost of food.
Frozen foods that
have reached temperatures of 40 degrees F and above for more than two hours are
not safe to eat. Discard these items.
You may safely
refreeze foods if:
Never taste a food with questionable odor or color. Always properly dispose of these foods by sealing them in a plastic garbage bag or burying the food. And remember, if the food is not safe for you it is not safe for your pet.
The following guide
may be helpful as you make the decision about what to keep and what to throw
out.
Meats,
Poultry, Fish and Shellfish
Fresh meats, poultry, fish and shellfish are unsafe to eat when they start to
spoil. Examine each package of food before you decide what to do with it. If the
color or odor is poor or questionable, discard it. Be especially careful with
ground, cubed or sliced meats and poultry and all fish and shellfish because
they are highly perishable. If completely thawed, it is best to discard these
items. Make decisions about refreezing meats and poultry using the guidelines
above.
Cooked Foods
Dangerous bacteria grow rapidly in cooked foods. Do not refreeze these
products if they have thawed. Dispose of them properly. Do not use or refreeze
convenience and / or packaged dinners that have thawed.
Vegetables and
Fruits
Frozen vegetables and fruits that are frozen plain (with no sauce) may be cooked
and refrozen if they show no signs of spoilage. Fruits usually ferment when they
start to spoil which would not make them unsafe, but will make the flavor
objectionable. Refreeze if they look and smell acceptable.
Breads, Cakes
and Pies
Freshness will be affected in these products but they can be refrozen unless
they have become contaminated with liquid dripping from other foods as they
thawed. Cream pies should be discarded.
Refrigerated items should be safe as long as power is out no more than 4 hours. After that, you may have to discard some items. Some foods in you refrigerator will be safe to use when they are not refrigerated. Jams, jellies, preserves, fresh fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, vegetable oil, margarine or shortening, and condiments like ketchup, mustard, and pickle/pickle relishes should be safe without refrigeration.
However, milk, soft
cheese and other dairy products, eggs, deli, processed and raw meats, and all
cooked foods spoil quickly and should be discarded if the temperature
rises above 40 degrees F for two hours or more.
Although dry ice can
be used in the refrigerator, block ice is better. You can put it in the
refrigerator's freezer unit and place your refrigerated perishables there. The
freezer unit will insulate food better and maintain a colder temperature longer.
Group meat and
poultry to one side or on a tray so that if they begin to thaw, their juices
will not get on other food. Be sure to discard any fully-cooked items in either
the freezer or the refrigerator that have come in contact with raw meat juices.
Above all, remember
that you cannot rely on appearance or odor to tell if a food is safe to eat. Never
taste food to determine its safety. If you are unsure about the safety of
your food after a power outage, remember...WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT!