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

Stinky Eggs

“I have met a lot of hardboiled eggs in my time, but you're twenty minutes.” - Oscar Wilde

My wife loves hardboiled eggs but they stink-up the refrigerator with a sulfur smell for a day or more after cooking. I did some research and found two sites that say the smell is most likely from overcooking the eggs.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006021409626

http://hubpages.com/hub/Easy-Home-Egg-Freshness-Test-and-How-to-Boil-Eggs-that-Dont-Smell-Eggy

First check is if your eggs are too old. Eggs in the refrigerator can be stored safely for weeks but each egg is losing moisture through its shell, at the rate of about 5 milligrams of liquid per day. As the moisture escapes the shell, a small air pocket at the base of the egg grows. This provides an easy test for freshness: eggs that float in water are very old and should not be eaten. The quicker an egg sinks, the fresher it is.

If you eggs are fresh but still produce a sulfurous smell when hard boiled then you've overcooked them. Rapidly boiling water will overcook the white part of the egg before the yolks are completely set. Rapid boiling can also crack the shells. So the suggested technique for making hard boiled eggs is:

* Place eggs in pot of cold water, single layer, with an inch of water covering
* Heat just till boiling (let the eggs warm up slowly)
* Start your timer.
* Gently simmer your eggs at about 90 degrees. Some cooks say cover the pot and remove it from the burner.
* Eggs are solid at 13-17 minutes depending on the size of the egg (http://www.ochef.com/655.htm)
* Do NOT cook for longer than this.
* Stop the cooking process by removing the eggs from the pot and plunge them in cold water or place them briefly under cold running water. This is VERY important.

Get crackin'.

Bottom Line

Eggs are high in nutrients -- a very good source of selenium, iodine, and vitamin B2 and a good source of protein, molybdenum, phosphorous, vitamin B5, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. There are 78 Calories, 2 Weight Watchers points in one hard-boiled egg.

The bad: Eggs are high in Saturated Fat, and the yolks are very high in Cholesterol. The MayoClinic recommends just one egg a day if you eat the yolk.

Safe Easter Eggs

“What is my loftiest ambition? I've always wanted to throw an egg at an electric fan.”-Oliver Herford

With Easter nearby, you may be dying, hiding and eating lots of eggs. Here is some egg handling advice from the Alaskan Food Safety Division.

• Keep fresh eggs refrigerated until it's time to cook them. Warm eggs are a breeding ground for harmful bacteria just like meat, poultry, fish, and milk.
• The American Egg Board (AEB) recommends this method for boiling the perfect Easter egg: Place eggs in single layer in saucepan. Add enough tap water to come at least 1 inch above eggs. A tablespoon of vinegar can be added to allow better dye coverage after cooking. Cover pan and quickly bring just to boiling. Turn off heat. If necessary, remove pan from burner to prevent further boiling. Let eggs stand, covered, in the hot water for 15 minutes. Immediately run cold water over eggs or place them in ice water until completely cooled.
• Refrigerate all hard cooked eggs.Whatever the style of preparation, eggs should always be cooked well. The Food and Drug Administration recommends cooking eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm, not runny. This way any Salmonella or other harmful bacteria that may be in the eggs will be destroyed.
• Do not handle eggs excessively, and wash your hands thoroughly when you do handle them, whether in cooking, cooling, dyeing or hiding. The shell of an egg is very porous and will permit bacteria to penetrate.
• Hard cooked eggs actually have a shorter shelf life than raw eggs. Most commercial egg producers lightly coat their eggs with a thin spray coating of mineral oil to close the pores against contamination. Cooking the egg in the shell, however, removes that barrier so that your hard cooked eggs are again prone to outside contamination. Hard cooked eggs may also have small cracks allowing bacteria to enter.
• When hiding Easter eggs, avoid areas where the eggs might come into contact with pets, wild animals, birds, reptiles, insects or lawn chemicals.

Bottom Line
Visit the these websites for more information on eggs!
American Egg Board
USDA Egg Safety
FDA Egg Safety