Food after power outage
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Anonymous
| We lost power last night and it was out for around 12 hours. We just stocked the fridge and I’m loath to toss a ton of food if I don’t have to, especially with grocery prices being what they are right now. I know the official guidance is to throw many things out after 4 hours, but I’m wondering if people actually do this? The fridge was at 45 degrees when the power came back on. |
Anonymous
| I would not chance it. It’s not worth food poisoning. |
Anonymous
| You can throw food out if you like wasting money, but it will be fine. |
Anonymous
| I really don’t think 45 degrees vs your normal 38-40 makes a difference. Your milk is still cold. |
Anonymous
| Did you open the fridge or freezer? If you didn’t open the freezer and it was relatively full, everything in there is fine. If you didn’t open the fridge, much of the stuff is fine (produce, most cheeses) and the milk will tell you if it went bad. The meat is a little more questionable but if you didn’t open the fridge, the meat was still cool when you opened the fridge, you are going to have a fun day cooking with it and then refrigerating/freezing all the meals. Poach the heck out of the chicken and save it for other meals. |
Anonymous
All of this. If you kept it shut, you're fine. Maybe cook off some meat. |
Anonymous
| I would think everything would be ok at 45 but I would question the meat or lunch meat but with that said I'm very very careful because of health issues but it usually gets to 45 on the defrost cycle anyway but don't know how long it stayed like that. |
Anonymous
| It's fine. |
Anonymous
| Thanks everyone! |
Anonymous
| It's fine but start cooking meat. |
Anonymous
| I’d probably toss previously opened packs of lunch meat, and only probably. My DH would definitely still eat it without worry |