What to Do with Refrigerated Foods After a Power Outage by aptprepper for Apartment Prepper
Right before Christmas, some of my relatives lost electricity when the wind knocked out their neighborhood’s power lines. They spent a cold night at home and were worried they would lose all the holiday food in their fridge.
A power outage can occur at any time – heavy thunderstorms, heat wave when the power grid is stretched thin, local electrical repairs, hurricanes, earthquakes etc. A lot of people wonder what to do with the food in the refrigerator when electricity is lost for a period of time.
As soon as you lose power
If you lose electricity, keep the refrigerator and freezer door closed to keep food from spoiling.
Call your power company and get an estimate on when power will be restored. This will give you an idea how long you’ll be out of power. In the meantime the whole family must avoid opening the fridge and freezer.
If it looks like power will not be restored right away, you may have to take some action. Assuming you are not in the middle of a disaster, and are able to go out, pick up some dry ice or bags of ice. The last time my fridge broke down, we placed everything in a cooler and packed the cooler with ice. I had to learn to live without a fridge for a while but the foods did stay cold.
Another thing families do when they are about to lose their refrigerated foods is to try and cook those foods that are cutting it close. During the hurricanes I have experienced, many residents did exactly that-fire up the barbecue and grill the meats. That’s why you need a backup methods for cooking food in the event of a power outage.
Let’s look at what to do with refrigerated foods after a power outage.
