How long is food safe during a power outage?

“I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood.”
-Bill Watterson (author of Calvin & Hobbes)

My wife & I recently spent several winter days without power due to the Oct 29 snow storm which dropped 4 inches of heavy wet snow on trees still covered with autumn leaves. This causes massive amounts of broken limbs, fallen trees, and power lines knocked down. The damage to power lines was greater than tropical storm Irene a few months back.

When the power went out on Saturday we knew it would be gone for awhile - this was a major storm. So our first thought was the fridge. We discussed what to pull from the fridge (before opening it) and then quickly removed items we wanted to use and put them in an insulated cooler. The fridge and freezer were not opened again until power was restored. The cooler was placed outside in the snow to help keep it cold. If we had been more clever we might have emptied the fridge and put everything in the snow. This would have been great overnight but perhaps still unsafe during the heat of day. We also could have used dry ice in the fridge but no one was distributing it locally to us.

The magic temperature with refrigerated food is 40°. The USDA says,

"Always keep meat, poultry, fish, and eggs refrigerated at or below 40°F and frozen food at or below 0°F." ... "The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door remains closed."

The USDA website has a table listing when foods are no longer safe. Discard any potentially hazardous food that has been above 41°F for four hours or more, reached a temperature of 45°F or higher for any length of time, or has an unusual color, odor, or texture.

VERY IMPORTANT: More than 250 diseases can be caused by bacteria found in contaminated food. Many bacteria can grow above 40°F and not produce a funny smell or taste. Never taste food to determine if it’s safe.

The following items can tolerate room temperatures for a few days and DO NOT need to be tossed out:

• Butter or margarine
• Hard and processed cheeses
• Fresh uncut fruits and vegetables, Fruit juices
• Dried fruits and coconut
• Opened jars of vinegar-based salad dressings, jelly, relish, taco sauce, barbecue sauce, mustard, ketchup, olives and peanut butter
• Fresh herbs and spices
• Fruit pies, breads, rolls, and muffins. Cakes, except cream cheese frosted or cream-filled
• Flour and nuts

Fortunately the list above describes most of our fridge content.  We should toss our raw eggs and our yogurt. I always thought yogurt would last longer than regular milk but even yogurt has a short shelf life; see http://www.ehow.com/facts_7382133_long-yogurt-stay-good-unrefrigerated_.html

Bottom Line
Perishable food such as meat, poultry, seafood, milk, and eggs that are not kept adequately refrigerated or frozen may cause illness if consumed, even when they are thoroughly cooked.

For a list of foods and which are "safe" or not when warm, check out http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/keeping_food_Safe_during_an_emergency/index.asp
Another good site is http://www.uri.edu/ce/ceec/food/factsheets/powerout.html

See also my blog post:  Living without power

My Bread

“The first time I tried organic wheat bread, I thought I was chewing on roofing material”- actor Robin Williams

Unless your food storage is a mountain of tin cans or a closet full of freeze-dried meals, odds are that you will have a few buckets of wheat for emergency use. Now what will you do with that wheat? Back during the Y2K scare we got a good price on a wheat grinder so we were able to make decent flour but had little luck making bread from scratch. Most of our baking efforts came out like bricks with very little yeast rising. We checked our yeast - it was alive but not working for us.

A few months back my wife found a bread recipe that has worked perfectly every time. We now have a new loaf every few days. The recipe was first published in the New York Times back in 2006 by baker Jim Lahey. It was an immediate success with the public and Lahey used his moment of fame to publish a baking book called, My Bread. We've tried a few recipes - we really enjoyed the no-knead olive bread with green olives, no so much a loaf containing peanuts.

The full bread recipe is a bit big for just two; the loaf sometimes goes bad before we can finish it. This won't be a problem if you have kids.

Some things about the recipe that work for us.

1. The long rise time lets the yeast do its job.

2. Use a dutch oven or cast iron pot with lid. The bread rises very little in the oven so it takes the shape of the pot. We had a lot of round low loafs before my wife switched to 2/3 recipe and a cast iron tea pot to give the loaf some height.

3. Definitely preheat the pot (without the lid). We tired once with a cold pot and the bread stuck to the pot and did not want to come out. But with a hot pot and a little corn meal tossed in before the bread, we have no sticking.

4. My wife now mostly skips mini-knead and second rise step. She lets it rise for as long as 24 hours in winter when our house is cold. Then while the pot is preheating in the oven she'll punch the bread or move it around a little inside the rising bowl if it looks too gassy.

5. As some versions of the recipe state, the hardest part is waiting for the bread to cool for one hour after de-potting. The author says this is essential and we haven't broken the rule yet.

Bottom Line

Try it - you'll like it! We liked it so much we bought the book after first borrowing it from the library.

Brownbagging

Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what's for lunch.”- Orson Welles

If you bring your own lunch to work like I do, you'll enjoy the article, Sex Up Your Sandwich: Ideas for Budget Conscious Brown Baggers with dozens of ideas for a more exciting sandwich.

1. Use spreads with zest like avocado, guacamole, Dijon mustard, hummus, and hot buffalo wing sauce.


2. Add tasty extras to the sandwich like banana pepper rings, basil leaves, pre-cooked bacon, leftover cranberry sauce and stuffing. Be imaginative.


3. Bored with ham & cheese? How about meatballs, grilled vegetables, or meatloaf?


4. Wonder bread? No way! Buy artisanal breads, bagels, tortilla wrap or rolls. Why pay Panera good money for a fancy sandwich you can easily make?


5. Pack tasty (and healthy sides) like tomato soup, apple wedges, carrot sticks. Or go unhealthy with potato chip, potato salad, coleslaw, pudding, yummmmm.....


6. Don't eat that sandwich cold! Try an open face tuna melt, a hero warmed in the oven, a grilled cheese, etc. You might have to bake or grill at home and reheat in a microwave at work.

Bottom Line

Break out of the rut. Look at a diner menu for sandwich ideas and try to make them yourself. Or surf the web for new sandwich recipes.

Be creative. As a teenage baby sitter, I was feeding one child that wanted a baloney sandwich, the other P&J with grape jelly. For myself I combined the two and discovered I really liked it.

New Year Traditions

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?

The oldest known New Year’s Celebration was 4000 years ago when Babylon partied for eleven days every year at the start of spring. In 153 BC the Roman senate established January 1 as the official start of the New Year. BTW, January is named after the two-faced Roman god Janus who looks forward and back and presides over beginnings and endings, rather appropriate for New Year. The early Christian church from 567 AD through the Middle Ages condemned the celebration of New Year as pagan. Modern celebration resumed about 400 years ago.

The Babylonians also began the tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions. A common resolution 4000 years ago was to return borrowed items. The Greeks first associated a Baby with the New Year as part of the death and rebirth cycle of the god of fertility (and wine), Dionysus. In the fourteenth century the Germans added a sash to the baby with the year on it.

In many cultures the goal of the New Year’s Eve is to ensure LUCK throughout the New Year with the first day setting a pattern for those that follow. As the year starts, so may the year continue with friends, family and cheer amidst plenty of food.

In Great Britain the custom of first footing is practiced. The first visitor to the house after midnight represents the luck you will have. The dark haired man bringing a gift like money, bread, or coal will ensure the family has have plenty of these in the year to come. The first person must not be blond, red-haired, or a woman, as these are considered bad luck.

In Germany a bit of food eaten on New Year's Eve is left on their plate until after Midnight, as a way on ensuring a well stocked larder in the coming year.

Oftentimes the party food consists of symbols for luck. The Dutch believe rings are lucky (=wealth or completion) so they consume donuts. In the southern US black-eyed peas and ham (hog) are both considered lucky and consumed together. Cabbage is lucky because the leaves look like paper currency. Italians eat long spaghetti to symbolize long life. The Portuguese and Spanish eat twelve grapes as the clock strikes twelve on New Year’s Eve. The grapes ensure twelve happy months.

Bottom Line

The list here barely scratches the surface of New Year traditions. For instance, one of the most popular traditions in Ecuador is to wear yellow underwear to attract positive romantic energies for the New Year. Check out parentdish or worldbook or wikipedia for more traditions.

PS

A New Year’s tradition with the media is making predictions for what’s ahead. I like this site of 15 Failed Predictions. For example:

"It will be years --not in my time-- before a woman will become Prime Minister."--Margaret Thatcher in 1969, became Prime Minister in 1979

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”--Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 (of course is was thinking of the room sized computers back then)

"Reagan doesn’t have that presidential look." --United Artists Executive rejecting Ronald Reagan as the lead in 1964 film, The Best Man

Artificial Ingredients

"I appreciate the additional additives and preservatives that help sell a project, but I'm sticking to what works best for me. I gotta sell the album live on stage and make people believe in the songs.”-Busta Rhymes

Have you ever looked at the ingredients list of a food product and wondered why it contained so many unpronounceable chemicals? They are there for color, for texture, for artificial flavor, or for extending the lifespan of the product. Reasons that help company sell the food and make money. These chemicals are rarely there for your health.

For a description of 35 common additives, check out The Ultimate Food Additive Glossary at Eat This, Not That.

Bottom Line

Avoid products with dozens of ingredients. Simple is healthier. However this does mean that your food will have a shorter shelf life and/or require refrigeration. Or that oil may separate and need to be stirred back in (like natural peanut butter). But this is a small price to pay to avoid chemical additives.

How to Eat Healthy when Eating Out

“No diet will remove all the fat from your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain, you might look good, but all you could do is run for public office.” - George Bernard Shaw

http://www.menshealth.com/ recommends 10 Ways to Make Fast Food Healthy

• Hamburgers & Sandwiches – skip the special sauces and mayo. Use BBQ sauce, ketchup and mustard instead. Stay away from high calorie bread like Panera Asiago Cheese Foccacia. Avoid any sandwich that says “melt” – the bread is soaked with melted butter. Try eating your hamburger or sandwich open face and toss away one of the buns.
  
• Pizza – Reduce the crust calories by ordering thin crust. Skip the high fat toppings like pepperoni (yum!) and sausage. Order ham or vegetables instead.
  
• Salads – omit extras like cheese, bacon, and fried chicken bits. Make sure your salad dressing is lite or fat-free
  
• Burrito – split a giant burrito with a friend – most are way too big for one person. Or ask for a burrito bowl where the fillings are mixed with salad greens.
  
• Breakfast Sandwich – for diet ham beats bacon and bacon beats sausage. Skip the cheese and ask for an English muffin instead of a bagel, biscuit or croissant.
  
• Chicken – go for grilled or skinless. Watch out for anything fried.
  
• Beverages – many “fruit” smoothies are loaded with sugar or corn syrup. For fancy coffee drinkers, ask for skim milk or milk foam. Don’t add whip cream on top. If you like a shot of syrup flavoring, use a sugar-free flavor.

Bottom Line

As mentioned in an earlier post, fast food places can take healthy food items and create a calorie nightmare with butter soaked bread, cheese, added sugar, salt, etc. Order the simplest food possible with the fewest mystery ingredients.

My wife & I went to Taco Bell recently and shared a burrito and tostada from their dollar menu for less than $2 total. We could have (should have?) spent a little more and ordered from their new “Fresco” menu which lowers the fat and calories by using salsa instead of cheese and sauces. It’s nice to see Taco Bell trying to market “healthy” items again.

Can I Still Eat This?

“I worked in a health food store once. A guy came in and asked me, "If I melt dry ice, can I take a bath without getting wet?” - Stephen Wright (Comedian)

While food storage is an excellent idea, you must also eat the food you store and replenish it on a regular basis. Eventually all food goes bad, some slower than others. Cereals, snack foods, frozen entrees, and dry packaged foods may be marked with a "best if used by date." These products are not at their best quality after this date, but can still be used safely for a short period of time thereafter. Other foods, such as unbaked breads, are marked with an "expiration" or "use by date," which means the product should not be consumed after that date. “Use by” works more like an expiration date, similar to that on medication when taking pills after the date is not recommended.

According to FoodReference.com most canned food has a shelf life of at least two years from the date of purchase if stored at 75° F and below. If the can is not marked date, then use a magic marker to write the purchase month and year on the car. When the can is two years old, don’t panic and toss it out. Canned food retains its safety and nutritional value well beyond two years, but it may have some variation in quality, such as a change of color and texture. Canned food as old as 100 years has been found in sunken ships and it is still microbiologically safe! No one recommends keeping canned food for 100 years, but if the can is intact, not dented or bulging or rusted, it is very likely edible (though perhaps not very nutritious).

It’s important to know that all self-life values are approximations. Foods last longest in cool, dry cabinets. Cans stored near or above hot appliances (like your stove) will spoil sooner. Warmth and humidity can drastically shorten the shelf life of foods. A chart at http://survivalacres.com/information/shelflife.html shows that canned bulk food can last 40 years at 37° F but only 1 year if stored at 102° F

Bottom Line

Pay attention to the Use By and Expiration Dates on food. Try to use canned foods within two to three years of purchase. If you don’t know the age of your canned food check out the amazing tables of marketing codes at http://consumerist.com/5120395/cheat-sheet-for-sketchy-food-expiration-codes and www.y2kkitchen.com/html/can_code_decoder.html. These charts explain values like ECCHO, 139C8, 7029WW1827 and 61071 which all equal dates if you know how to read them.

Check out Food Storage Guidelines For Consumers by the Virginia Cooperative Extension for more details on shelf life and good storage practices.
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/foods/348-960/348-960.html

More links for shelf life tables:
http://www.timestriponline.com/shelflife/foodshelflife.htm
http://www.henrycoema.org/forms/Storage-Life-of-Groceries.pdf

Rolling in the dough

"Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven."
- Yiddish proverb

For several years my wife & I avoided buying wheat in bulk because we wanted a food storage we would really eat and use. So we stocked up on boxes of pasta, jars of spaghetti sauce, and canned soup, fruits, meats and vegetables. But we also like eating fresh food in season from farmer's markets so we found that the canned supplies stayed on the shelves until winter. If we bought a year's worth of canned food but only ate it 3 months of the year, then it would take four years to eat our way through the inventory and restock. That's probably safe but we prefer not to let cans get that old.

So to reach our goal of a one year supply we had to buy bulk grains and now have a closet filled with buckets of wheat, oats, etc. Wheat if kept airtight, bug free, cool and dark will last a very long time. Still it's a good idea to eat what you store. So we had to learn - what can you do with whole wheat?

Step one was buying a wheat grinder. I'll write more about grinders another day. We choose a hand grinder so it would always work but discovered that wheat grinding is HARD work and later bought a motor attachment.

Step two is discovering wheat and wheat flour recipes. Wheat berries (the whole grain) can be tasty in soups and salads when cooked. We've also learned to bake bread and make home made spaghetti.

Bottom Line
Wheat has sustained mankind for most of its history. And wheat can be fun to use. Many people find personal satisfaction in making bread from scratch. There are so many flavors & fillings & shapes to try out. And who can resist the yeasty smell of fresh bread just baked? So give wheat a try!

Food Safety During Power Outages

Keep cool and you command everybody.- Louis de Saint-Just (1767 - 1794)
One danger easily overlooked during a power outage is food contamination. According to the USDA, Keeping Food Safe During an Emergency,

"Always keep meat, poultry, fish, and eggs refrigerated at or below 40°F and frozen food at or below 0°F." ... "The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door remains closed."

The USDA recommends keeping a thermometer in the fridge and freezer so you'll know the temperature. Because of bacteria growth, most fridge food should be thrown out if kept above 40°F for more than two hours. The USDA website has a table listing when foods are no longer safe. The site also advises what to do with canned foods after floods and fire.

The Minnesota Dept of Health is slightly more tolerant than the USDA with 4 hrs at 40°F:

Discard any potentially hazardous food that has been above 41°F for four hours or more, reached a temperature of 45°F or higher for any length of time, or has an unusual color, odor, or texture.

The following items can tolerate room temperatures for a few days and DO NOT need to be tossed out:

• Butter or margarine
• Hard and processed cheeses
• Fresh uncut fruits and vegetables, Fruit juices
• Dried fruits and coconut
• Opened jars of vinegar-based salad dressings, jelly, relish, taco sauce, barbecue sauce, mustard, ketchup, olives and peanut butter
• Fresh herbs and spices
• Fruit pies, breads, rolls, and muffins. Cakes, except cream cheese frosted or cream-filled
• Flour and nuts

Bottom Line
Perishable food such as meat, poultry, seafood, milk, and eggs that are not kept adequately refrigerated or frozen may cause illness if consumed, even when they are thoroughly cooked.