Post-Blackout Advice: What To Chuck, So You Don’t Toss Your Cookies

If you’re like 350,000 other Oncor customers, you are likely finally reading this at home, on your couch, with a light on powered by — finally — electricity.

But can we engage in some real talk? Because you’re probably wondering about everything in your fridge. I know I was. I mean, I had just put the groceries away, practically, when the power went out Sunday.

We didn’t get the lights back on until late Tuesday night. And I wondered — my fridge and freezer stayed closed pretty much the entire time. Do I have to throw everything away? Did it act as a cooler?

Ehhhh, no. No, it didn’t. As you can see in the photo above, those were the temps on our fridge and freezer about 10 minutes after the power came on. But to be sure, I asked some experts.

“Time and temp are the main things to look at,” said Neil Ylanan, senior director of quality and food safety at HelloFresh’s DFW location. “And 40 degrees Fahrenheit is the temp where you have to start looking at things.”

“Most of the time when you have a power outage, the fridge will still hold the temp for a few hours and the freezer for longer,” he added. “Mainly you just want to keep the door closed and wait. If the power is out longer than two hours, then you need to start checking the temp of the food.”

If you came home to a fridge full of recooling food, Brian Katzowitz with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told me it’s just not worth the risk to guess.

“Bottom line is when in doubt, throw it out,” he said.

Ylanan agreed. “The FDA regulations for food in that danger zone ( between 40F and 160F) is four hours max,” he said. “So if something has been above 40 for four hours, it has to be brought back to 40F.”

And in my case, where it had been since Sunday?

“Oh wow.  Yeah if it’s been a while then just empty it and start over,” Ylanan said.

But pantry and shelf-stable items, he added, should be just fine.

“They hang out in warehouses that are much hotter sometimes,” he said.

“If the power is out for less than four hours, then the food in your refrigerator and freezer will be safe to consume,” agreed Katzowitz, who also recommended keeping the doors to the appliance shut as much as possible so the unit stays cold longer.

“Throw away perishable foods (including meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and leftovers) in your refrigerator when the power has been off for four hours or more,” he said. “Throw away food that has an unusual odor, color, or texture.”

Provided your power wasn’t out for more than a couple of days, you should be OK, he said.

“Thawed food that contains ice crystals can be refrozen or cooked,” he said. “Freezers, if left unopened and full during a power outage, will keep food safe for 48 hours (24 hours if half full).”

But again, if you’re not sure when your power returned, it’s probably not a good idea to risk it.

“I would move anything you really want to try and keep (high-cost items) to a freezer,” Ylanan added.

But if you’re faced (like me) with throwing out your entire refrigerator’s stock, keep receipts on how much it costs you to replace everything — some homeowners and renters insurance companies offer reimbursement for perishable food that spoils during a power outage.

But that does depend on the policy — and the company, I learned while doing research (we have a call out to our homeowners insurance company) that, depending on the policy, you could get up to $500 back in reimbursement — so it pays to at least make a phone call to your agent to find out.

“While home insurance policies vary, the standard basic policy is called an HO-3 home policy … some insurance companies might call it something else, but HO-3 is the common name for it,” explained this story from Bankrate. “This policy provides coverage for ‘ordinance or law,’ which covers costs associated with bringing the property up to code after a covered loss.”

The standard HO-3 policy, the article continued, also can provide coverage for refrigerated items.

Allstate gave even more explanation.

“The cause of the power outage may play a role in whether your homeowner’s insurance will cover the spoiled food. Oftentimes, insurance may help reimburse you for the cost of the spoiled food if it’s the result of a covered risk (frequently referred to as a peril), such as a tree that fell on your home’s roof and severed your power line. However, if you accidentally cut your own power line during a do-it-yourself project or fail to pay your power bill, your homeowner’s insurance policy likely won’t cover food-loss expenses.

In addition, some insurers’ policies may cover food that spoils if the power outage affects only your residence, while other providers may offer coverage if the entire neighborhood is without power. In either case, though, the outage would likely have to be caused by a covered peril. Your agent can help you understand what your policy may cover.”

Also, take care as you’re tossing that food — Allstate recommends taking photos of the food as you throw it out, and if you’re tossing something like a whole side of beef, you might want to track down the receipt. We plan on including that photo of our fridge temp if we make a claim, too.

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Bethany Erickson is the education and public policy writer for CandysDirt.com. She is also the Director of Audience Engagement for Candy’s Media. She is a member of the Online News Association, the Education Writers Association, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, the National Association of Real Estate Editors, and the Society of Professional Journalists, and is the 2018 NAREE Gold winner for best series and a 2018 Dallas Press Club Hugh Aynsworth Award winner. Contact her at [email protected].