Food Safety in a Power Outage

Last weekend's hurricane threatened to wreak havoc. In my pre-storm planning, I was most concerned about the water, a problem I have become quite familiar with over the past few years. But it wasn't the water that caused the most stress this time. It was the loss of power and internet connection that provided the bigger challenges for 61 hours and 32 minutes. I know I've been fortunate regarding past outages which have been short and few. Perhaps that's why this one felt like an eternity.

My storm provisions of gallons of drinking water and foods that were edible without heating, cooling, or cooking were working out fine. But there were no bags of ice to be found anywhere nearby.
Day 1 - I had not acted fast enough.
Day 2 - I got word of a source for dry ice. Alas, they were sold out, but expected more later in the day. I stood in line, but again, no luck, the short supply ran out.
Later on Day 2 I found bags of ice that had just been restocked at the grocery store. Happiness!

Meanwhile, the contents of my freezer were all melting and needed to be tossed. The refrigerator was a little trickier. I had put the drinks we used most often into a cooler with 2 bags of ice. In another cooler with ice,  I put the foods I thought we might want to eat within the day. The fridge felt like it was still staying cool, but I didn't have a thermometer to be certain. So out went the milk, eggs, lunch meats from the coolers along with  the seafood, poultry and leftovers that looked delicious.

Since it had exceeded the suggested time and temperature I had to follow the safety rule:
"When in doubt, Throw it out." So out it went.

But suppose I had been better prepared with a regular source of dry and wet ice? How long could the food in the refrigerator have survived?  The USDA says a freezer can be expected to keep food safe for 24 hours if it is half full or for 48 hours if fully packed with frozen foods. If the fridge door had been left closed, it may have kept the temp at 40 or below for up to 4 hours without power.

After the 10th hour, the novelty of the power failure was wearing off and we started to unload the fridge. The food still felt cold to the touch - but we played it safe and threw it all out.     

Miss Phage apologizes for missing her weekly blog entry on Monday, August 29, 2011. The storm knocked out power very early Sunday morning and it wasn't restored until late Tuesday evening.