How to Check your Food After a Natural Disaster

5/9/2017 (Permalink)

Few things are as scary and unpredictable as natural disasters.  While all emergencies are terrifying, there's something about the uncontrollable nature of these disasters that make them especially frightening. 

While it's impossible to know what exactly will result after one of these disasters, it always pays off to have some practical knowledge on hand, from the biggest issues to the smallest inconveniences.

When it comes to said inconveniences, nothing is as annoying as trying to guess whether your food has gone bad or not.  Often during a huge storm, electricity tends to get blown out, which means that your refrigerator has probably died and left your food to spoil.  One of two things will happen: the food will defrost, go bad, then maybe refreeze OR it will stay frozen or refreeze in time to keep the food edible.

We can feel a little safer with this practical, simple tip:

DIRECTONS

Place a cup of water in your freezer.

Freeze the water until it is solid, and then put a quarter on top of the frozen water and return it to your freezer.

Leave it in your freezer.

You're probably asking yourself, what does this tip accomplish?

It helps you determine whether or not your food has gone bad , or whether it refroze or stayed frozen while you were away.

For instance, if you return after you have been evacuated and find the frozen water has melted and the quarter has fallen to the bottom of the cup, you know that all the food has defrosted and it should be thrown out.

However, if the quarter is either on the top of the frozen cup or in the middle of the cup, then your food may still be okay to eat.  The top tells you that the freezer was still in tact the whole time - the middle tells you that your food might have defrosted, but later refrosted when electricity returned.

Most importantly, as a general rule, if you feel your food is no longer safe, simply throw it out.  Safety is the utmost priority and eating food that may have spoiled can have numerous negative health consequences.