Would You Throw out All The Food in Your Fridge after a Power Outage?

• 

  [Deactivated] on 29/03/2016 - 23:03

  +3

  I wouldn't throw everything out. Best thing would be to exercise common sense and go through each item in the fridge.

  Put it this way - if you bought something from the supermarket and kept it in a car for 2-3 hours, would it be safe to consume? Would you eat it?

  Apply this test to everything, especially opened foods, and you can't go wrong.

  • 

    Solarlux on 30/03/2016 - 10:21

    +1

    Our family lived for over 10 years without a fridge and we never got food poisoning except once when we ate out at a well known fast food joint! We took care and cleared up most food quickly, but it was not uncommon for us to buy a cooked chicken for dinner and clear up the left over meat the next day for lunch without refrigeration.If refrigeration was that essential us humans would never have made it to now. Use the sniff test and recook if necessary. Obviously some food would be suss, like uncooked fish or chicken, just feed that to the dog or cat if you happen to own one of these animals with huge carbon foot prints! (Ref: "Time to eat the dog".. Google it")

• 

  YaBigGoose on 29/03/2016 - 23:07

  +9

  5-6 hours? No way, 99% of it will still be good.

  • 

    PJC on 29/03/2016 - 23:39

    +4

    Seconded. Providing the fridge was and is working properly. Age of fridge is irrelevant. I have seen many functioning fridges over 30 years old.

    • 

      altomic on 31/03/2016 - 15:25

      +2

      My parents beer fridge is a 1961 kelvinator.

• 

  YaBigGoose on 29/03/2016 - 23:08

  +1

  BTW you'd need the receipts for anything you wish to claim spoilage for, happened to us once. Rang the power company, and they said we'd need the receipts. Needless to say, no compensation happened.

  • 

    spackbace on 30/03/2016 - 01:02

    +1

    Not for WA, but it's up to a dollar amount, $100 or $150 from memory

    • 

      sagrules on 30/03/2016 - 10:35

      This happened to us recently in the middle of the night. How do you claim compensation? It would be hard to say how long the power was out due to the late hour.

      • 

        YaBigGoose on 30/03/2016 - 17:53

        I'd imagine when you give them your address they can look up their logs of local substations etc, but that's just a guess. Pretty sure with all the computer monitoring nowadays they could probably tell.

• 

  doctordv8 on 30/03/2016 - 00:31

  Fridge? Maybe the milk, or defrosted meats, but prob not much else unless it is obviously spoilt, and I would keep a good eye on the rest. The freezer though, is more the question, and I ask is that what was meant here? We had a door open situation a few months back, open for about 10 hours and only open 2 cm, but everything, and I mean everything was soft. Cost $200 to refill it, and we accepted the cost over the risk. We cooked what we could, smaller stuff under and at the back, but the front and door stuff, it just had to go. We are not food/freezer/medical experts enough to know what we can risk or not, so out it all went. Major bummer.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 30/03/2016 - 00:38

    +1

    But… but… but it says you're Dr Deviate…

• 

  QuickToThePointless on 30/03/2016 - 01:35

  +1

  No.

  If in doubt, remember most of the world is starving

  • 

    onetwothreefour on 30/03/2016 - 05:55

    So send it to the rest of the world?

    • 

      QuickToThePointless on 30/03/2016 - 09:13

      +4

      Yes mate….so bag up 30-40kg of foodstuffs, address it to in big bold letters

      Starving People
      Rest of the World
      Earth

      Sling it over your shoulder and walk to the post office, leaving a trail of leaking food juices and astounded onlookers.

      Tell anyone who makes eye contact on your journey "Im feeding the rest of the world, theres enough for everybody - no more world hunger"

      For maximum respect for your selfless actions, be sure to go to a post office in a central businsess district between 12-2pm

      When the guys in the white coats and the panel van show up, remember to ask them for your humanitatrian award at the top of your lungs to complete the spectacle

• 

  WannabeHermit on 30/03/2016 - 05:56

  +1

  I had a power outage a few weeks ago for 7-8 hours and everything was fine. The key to keeping your fridge and freezer cooler for longer (and lose less coolness when the door is opened) is to keep it full. I had my fridge filled with items that don't even need refrigerating such as bottles of water and juice, cans of soda, up & go, cat food, chocolate, peanut butter, etc. My freezer is too tiny to fit anything that doesn't require freezing…I kept it closed and everything remained frozen, even the ice cream.

  Unless your fridge was nearly empty and your house mate let all the cold air out I wouldn't worry. If in doubt, throw it out but I would at least inspect it, smell and taste test (in that order).

• 

  Marcsie on 30/03/2016 - 06:15

  -2

  Of course not, coz I am not stupid :)

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  KeplersLaws on 30/03/2016 - 08:20

  I believe you are asking Ozbargain.

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  oscargamer on 30/03/2016 - 08:23

  +1

  5-6 hours no

  24 hours maybe

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  purplelady on 30/03/2016 - 08:35

  Yeah I'll be doing sanity check on each of them. Plus my tummy is pretty used to not so hygienic/dodgy food, so I might eat them. But if your tummy easily gets upset, probably do very thorough check?

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  StewBalls on 30/03/2016 - 09:59

  Would You Throw out All The Food in Your Fridge after a Power Outage?

  Is your name Jose???

  I'm pretty sure you can see where I'm headed with this… ;)

• 

  WT on 30/03/2016 - 10:17

  +2

  Our powerbox was taken out by a car, no power for 48 hours. Meat in the freezer was still solid.

  Didnt throw anything out. There were people in our block throwing food away or cooking stuff up.

  I dont store raw meat in the fridge anymore since you can defrost a whole roast in an hour in water.

  If it was any longer i would have gotten ice for the esky and put milk in or drink it. In hindsight i regret not buying that 5k watt genny from masters for 250.

• 

  tunzafun001 on 30/03/2016 - 10:25

  +4

  We've all grown way too soft. It all comes down to bacterial/ mould/ fungal growth, and at 5-6 hrs (assuming a normal stocked freezer) your freezer would still be close to 0C, and there will be no bacterial growth there, even after 24hrs, maybe getting up around 3-4C. Even if completely thawed, bacterial growth would still be minimal. The old 'You cant refreeze x' is based on a wives tale for the stupid. You may lose quality with repeated re freezing, that's about it. I challenge anyone to freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw, freeze every day for a week (lets say allowing your 6hrs thaw time) and run a bacterial swab. I'm guessing there be almost zero difference to a purely left frozen product. Even then, lets say some bacteria does grow, we would ingest far more by simply being present in a work place.

  As for the fridge, almost everything is full of salt, sugar and or preservatives these days so good luck to the bacteria trying to take over. Exceptions here would be fresh protein based foods (as they are the bacteria that can eat our gut tract, since we are also protein based, and your body will 'purge them' (get sick). So 99% of your fridge would be safe after 6 hrs. The fresh fish fillet, chicken wings, quiche, fresh milk (most flavoured milks have tonnes of sugar)etc may ever so slightly influence your dump the next day, but that's about it. Using the 24hr scenario, these protein products are the foods you may want to turf, that's about it.

  • 

    QuickToThePointless on 30/03/2016 - 11:04

    totally agree with everything you say, especially

    The fresh fish fillet, chicken wings, quiche, fresh milk (most flavoured milks have tonnes of sugar)etc may ever so slightly influence your dump the next day

    All of those together will definitely influence the next days dump, especially its size

• 

  terrys on 30/03/2016 - 10:51

  If there was still visible ice in the food in the freezer, none of that food would have got above 0 C unless the door was held open for ~ 10 minutes into a warm room. An older freezer compartment would probably get to that stage after ~ 12 hours if the seals were a bit dodgy or it was only lightly stocked. In that situation, I would cook and refreeze…

• 

  imcold on 30/03/2016 - 11:14

  I would keep the food.

  I would probably however throw out stuff in the certain stuff in the fridge a few days before expiratory such as milk.

  As for stuff in the freezer I would keep them as well up to 15 hours of no power. Even a cheap $2 thermo bag can keep water mostly as ice after 12 hours.

• 

  themightyboost on 30/03/2016 - 12:01

  +1

  Thanks lads and laddettes for your opinions, now all that spag bol won't go to waste!
  Ozbargain, saving lives and saving dinners

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  Well Wasted on 30/03/2016 - 12:37

  +1

  i've worked for a power company before… for every 24 hours that you are without power you can claim 75 bucks for food spoilage… but only if you were disconnected without being informed of the power disruption. my power went out for about 65 hours a few years ago… so i made a claim and got 150 bucks (7 hours short of another 75 bucks) it got deducted from my power bill.

  • 

    tunzafun001 on 30/03/2016 - 14:15

    Also Coles insurance will payout as well, so double down (only need evidence of the power outage, and a list of groceries. No receipt required).

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  goosegog on 30/03/2016 - 14:07

  Go for a claim - take photos to send as proof. Then carry on as normal - there will be very little from the fridge or freezer that will be unusable. Let's face it , power companies are ripping us off hand over fist - you have the opportunity to gain something back - do it for all of us !
  Always do the sniff test though with the fridge food before consuming.

• 

  backpaqer on 30/03/2016 - 15:53

  +1

  Contents insurance has an excess…Medicare doesn't…take the risk :P

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  bargaino on 05/04/2016 - 15:09

  "All the food" is ridiculous.
  The question should be: What food are increased risk, and how to mitigate?

  The freezer though, is more the question,

  Unless the freezer had completely defrosted, the food is safe. No chance in 6 hrs.
  For partially defrosted food, you choose to refreeze with possible loss of taste/texture, or move it to the fridge to continue defrosting.