This is the week! Meal planning begins! You’ve carefully curated an entire weeks worth of food for you and your family. The recipes are bookmarked; the shopping list is complete; you made it to the grocery store (plus the specialty market for that one ingredient you had to have); you’re home and the car is unloaded into the refrigerator. Excellent work! Time to put on your favorite Netflix show and reward yourself for a job well done.
And then the power goes out.
Your first thought (after disappointment that your tv binge session is over) is ‘oh no—all that food!’
Instead of panicking, turn to the facts.
40 degrees is where your fridge temp should max out at. 41 degrees is the magic temperature where all the dangerous pathogens start to come alive. That coming-alive isn’t instant though. It takes a few hours.
The USDA has some general rules for us:
1. Your refrigerator will keep food safe for up to 4 hours during a power outage. Freezers…up to 48 hours.
2. Keep the door closed as much as possible.
3. Discard refrigerated perishable food after 4 hours without power
4. Never taste food to determine whether or not it is safe.
“When in doubt, throw it out!” If the outage is a long one, you’ll have to start making decisions. Here’s a handy item-by-item chart to print and keep around for that next power outage: https://www.foodsafety.gov/print/pdf/node/16?id=refrigerated-food
And of course…a home generator solves the problem all together! Here at West Michigan Generator, we want to help solve problems before they’re problems. Preparing for everything is impossible. Preparing for the inevitable? That’s a wise investment.
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