Food Spoilage in a Power Outage

Food Safety is important during a power outage.  

Reducing the temperature at which we store food and beverages increases the safe shelf life of those items.  To accomplish this homes and businesses commonly use refrigerators and freezers.  The ideal temp for a frig is 35°F – 38°F.  Freezers should be below 0°F.   Above 40°F bacteria growth starts to go wild.  

Unless you are operating your refrigerator on an alternative fuel such as propane chances are it’s plugged into the wall.  Thus, your refrigerated food storage is dependent upon the power grid for electricity.  When the power grid goes down so does the refrigerator and freezer. With no electricity things start getting warmer in there.  The warmer the room temperature is outside the frig and the more times you open the door the faster things warm up. 

According to Foodsafety.gov many foods which are thawed and held above 40° F for over 2 hours need to be discarded.  That’s right pitched in the trash. The food is unfit for human consumption and you should throw it away.  Food-born illness from microorganism growth on food can be serious.  Even life threatening!  You can find the full chart for refrigerated food from Foodsafety.gov  here.   

Frozen food is in danger of thawing during a power outage.  Many households and food service businesses purchase frozen meat and entrees in bulk.  Fisherman and hunters have many a freezer full of fish and wild game.   A deer can yield dozens of pounds of healthy venison.   Once frozen food is thawed the same rules apply.  Over 40°F for 2 hours and in the trash it goes.    The USDA has information about frozen food that has thawed here. 

Even if food is deemed safe to consume after a minor power outage, it will suffer in quality.  Less than suitable food storage temperatures will affect the texture and the flavor of the food.  The cost factor of having to throw away pounds and pounds of meat and other food items can be significant. A power outage of less than a day could result in an empty frig.  Beyond that and frozen food starts to become at risk.    

A standby generator can supply electrical power to your refrigerator and freezer in the event of a power outage.  Even the smallest standby generator will provide enough power to keep your refrigerated and frozen food safe.  “Can you connect the refrigerator to the generator?” is perhaps the most common request we get from homeowners and small businesses requiring perishable food storage.    You bet we can!  And depending on the size and model of generator you choose, you will be able to run a lot more.