Lost power for 31 hours - what to keep/toss in fridge/freezer?

[runwad]

Hey I read a tip that says take a cup of water and put it in your freezer. When the water freezes, throw a quarter on top of it. When the power goes out and then comes back on, you'll know if your food thawed by the placement of the quarter in the glass.

 

[meggybear17]

Check with your homeowners insurance! We lost power for 72+ hours last year and our homeowners insurance reimbursed us for the lost items we had to toss from the fridge and freezer. No deductible and wasn't counted as a "claim" against our insurance. We sent them an itemized list of sizes, weights, brands etc and they gave a price estimate for each thing and mailed us a check.

 

[Sagginit]

I lost power during Sandy for 36-48 hours. My freezer items with a few exception of door items that were not packed in tightly mostly stayed frozen. I cooked the veggies and defrosted carbs, meats went. My fridge stayed good. One thing I did was I knew that we would most likely lose power as most of the areas around us had so before I went to bed I took chunks of ice I had put in the freezer in the fridge (tupperware containers full, not just giant ice cubes). When the power came back on I discovered the containers were still almost frozen solid in the fridge so I know it had stayed at a safe temperature. This is a good tip for next time you suspect you might lose power. I did this because I heard a tightly packed freezer would stay colder longer, but then I realized I had way more fridge food that would go bad than freezer so at the last minute I made the swap. I also kept everything closed the entire time which was hard but paid off.

 

[Callie]

Honestly, here, eggs are so cheap I'd just toss them to be safe.
Condiments like ketchup and mustard should be ok. Anything mayo based needs to go. Butter is fine.

 

[aprilchem]

I'm really surprised that your stuff thawed that quickly. The last time we lost power for 48 hours all my food was still frozen solid! But I keep a lot in my freezer - we buy a 1/2 cow and a pig every year, so I have between 200-300 lbs of meat in there at any given time. I would be sick if I lost that!

One thing you can do if you don't keep a lot in your freezer is to freeze several gallon jugs that are 3/4 full of water. If your power goes off again they will act as an icepack until they thaw.