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

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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 

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.
 














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