# 4684
With hurricane conditions possible along the south Texas coast in roughly 36 hours, a lot of people may find themselves without electrical power for hours or possibly even days.
And when that happens some of the food that people have in their homes can go bad quickly. Particularly during the heat of summer.
The USDA maintains a Food Safety and Inspection website with a great deal of consumer information about how to protect your food supplies during an emergency, and how to tell when to discard food that may no longer be safe to consume.
First, an audio podcast (5 minutes).
Surviving a Power Outage: Don't Be in the Dark When it Comes to Food Safety (Jun 2, 2010; 4:45) | Script
FSIS Food Safety staff discusses tips on how to be food safe during a power outage.
Next, an extensive fact sheet on food safety during an emergency, such as a hurricane, flood, or earthquake.
Keeping Food Safe During an Emergency
Did you know that a flood, fire, national disaster, or the loss of power from high winds, snow, or ice could jeopardize the safety of your food? Knowing how to determine if food is safe and how to keep food safe will help minimize the potential loss of food and reduce the risk of foodborne illness. This fact sheet will help you make the right decisions for keeping your family safe during an emergency.
ABCD’s of Keeping Food Safe in an Emergency
Always keep meat, poultry, fish, and eggs refrigerated at or below 40 °F and frozen food at or below 0 °F. This may be difficult when the power is out.
Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature. 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. Obtain dry or block ice to keep your refrigerator as cold as possible if the power is going to be out for a prolonged period of time. Fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic foot full freezer for 2 days. Plan ahead and know where dry ice and block ice can be purchased.
You’ll also find numerous charts (like the one below) showing different food items, and how to know when they must be discarded.
It doesn’t require a major disaster like a Hurricane to knock out the power to your home for 24 hours or longer. A strong thunderstorm is perfectly capable of taking down power lines.
So whether you are in the path of a storm or not, it’s not such a bad idea to visit this site and glean what you can while the power is still on.
Related Post:
- Disaster’s Hidden Toll
- Do1Thing: A 12 Step Preparedness Program
- Black Swan Events
- FEMA: Beware Of Post-Disaster Scam Artists
- NWS: Possible Coastal Storm Mid-Week
- Caveat Twitter
- Unreasonable Expectations
- A Worrisome Mid-Week Forecast
- NPM12: Because We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Will Bring
- Japan’s Earthquake: Learning from Megadisasters
- NPM12: Surviving Disaster – Texas Style
- East Coast Tsunami Threats
- A Disaster In Slow Motion
- NCDP’s Preparedness Wizard
- Building Disaster Resilient Cities
- A Prescription For Any Disaster
- Popocatepetl Webcam
- Fukushima Nuke Plant Remains In `Precarious State’
- UK: Civil Threat Risk Assessment
- Before You Decide To Head For The Hills . . .
- Bulletin Of The Atomic Scientists: Fukushima Crisis in review
- 2011: A Year Of Catastrophic Losses
- DFID: World Unprepared For Future Shocks
- TFAH: 2011 Ready or Not Report
- WHO e-Atlas Of Natural Disaster Risks To Europe
- Safe Rooms: Improving Your Odds
- Do1Thing: A 12 Step Preparedness Program
- Resolve To Be Ready: 2013
- Ready or Not? TFAH Report 2012
- Public Health Practices (PHP) Update
- Black Swan Events
- The Gift of Preparedness 2012
- National Family History Day
- Paper: Are We Prepared For A Pandemic In Low Resource Communities?
- MMWR: Carbon Monoxide Exposures Related To Hurricane Sandy
- Canada: Another West Coast Temblor
- USGS: Eastern Earthquakes - Rare But Powerful
- Unreasonable Expectations
- Shaken, And Hopefully Stirred
- Sandy Strengthens Overnight
- Preparing For After The Storm Passes
- Sandy: Northeast Increasingly Under The Gun
- Reminder: ShakeOut Drills On Oct. 18th
- Dozens Of Ways To Spell `I-L-I’
- NPM12: Because We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Will Bring
- NPM12: One For The Home, And One More For The Road
- NPM12: Those Who Forget Their History . . .
- NPM12: The Ethics Of Preparedness
- NPM12: Disaster Buddies
- IDSA: Pandemic and Seasonal Influenza Preparedness
- Hong Kong: H5N1 Vaccine Recommended For Certain Lab Workers
- Study: Adverse Events Associated With Oseltamivir Outpatient Treatment
- MMWR: Carbon Monoxide Exposures Related To Hurricane Sandy
- Canada & Switzerland Clear Novartis Flu Vaccine For Use
- Preparing For After The Storm Passes
- NPM12: A Whole Lotta Shakeouts Going On
- NPM12: Preparedness For Kids
- NIOSH: 9/5 Is N95 Day
- H3N2v: CDC Offers Advice To Fair Goers
- MMWR: Tornado Fatalities During April 2011 Outbreak
- WHO: Safety & Importance Of Thiomersal In Vaccines
- Study: Safety Of Drive-Thru Vaccination Clinics
- The Biggest Weather-Related Killer
- At The End Of My Rope
- CSL: Report On Febrile Reactions To FluVax
- CDC Statement On OIG Report On Vaccine Program For Children
- CDC Statement On Helmets & Tornadoes
- Reminder: Great Central U.S. Shakeout Today
- Branswell: PLoS One Study On Adverse Reactions To MMR Vaccine
- E. Coli: In the Raw (cookie dough)
- NIVW: Dec 4th – 10th, 2011
- Lancet: Guillain-Barré Syndrome & H1N1 Vaccine In Children
- IDSA: Flu Vaccines In Pregnancy
- BMJ: Another Pandemrix Study To Ponder
- Pediatrics: Effectiveness Of A Single Adjuvanted Pandemic Flu Shot In Children
Widget by [ Iptek-4u ]