PRESERVING FOOD IN YOUR FRIDGE

When you go out of your house on holiday or when you go out of the house for a long time, there is no way for you to know if there was a power outage in your absence or for how long there was no electricity.

There is a possibility that the power outage was for several days/hours, leading to the defrosting of your fridge, and consequently, your food getting deteriorated.

Once the electricity comes back, foods freeze again and you almost do not notice that they were thawed. Thawed food can be really dangerous as certain types of foods are at risk of spreading salmonella and other bacteria!

Below is a way to find out if and how long your freezer was without electricity! And more importantly, you can find out if you can consume the food in the freezer.

For this you need:

a cup
a coin
water

First, pour water into a cup and place it in the freezer. When the water in the cup is frozen, put a coin on top of the frozen water in the cup and then return it to the freezer.

After returning home, before taking out the food from the freezer, look at where the coin is!

If the coin is still at the top or in the middle of the cup, there was no power failure or power outage was for a short time, so the water was only partly melted.

If the coin is at the bottom of a cup, it means that electricity failure was for a long time, so the ice completely melted.., and the coin sinks all the way to the bottom of the cup. At that point, it is advisable not to consume the foods from the freezer.

Do adopt this simple but effective method to check if your refrigerated foods are safe to consume. Happy & safe eating!