Food Protection during a power outage

By Joseph Parish

Actually the process of protecting your food during a power outage begins way before the outage ever occurs. As a responsible survivalist your major goal in food storage should rest upon selection of foods which do not require cold storage. You should stock up on many of the shelf stable foods that are available such as canned vegetables and fruits, various juices, peanut butter, trail mixes, energy bars and any other type of foods which do not require freezing.

We all realize that sooner or later we will experience a power outage so the key to preserving our food supply lies in planning ahead. We need to make the necessary plans to keep foods which require refrigeration cold. One solution would be to purchase a few of the freeze-pack inserts that are on the market and maintain these inserts in a frozen state until needed. You could purchase a cooler, freeze water in milk jugs or simply store some bags of ice for that eventful day.

You should do your homework properly and know before an emergency as to where you can purchase dry or block ice. You could also develop some sort of emergency freezer food sharing plan with family or friends in a different area of the town which may not be losing power at the same time as you.

Now that you have concentrated on what to do prior to losing power let’s progress to the actual emergency and assume that you have now lost all power. Always keep your freezer and refrigerator doors shut at all times and open them only when it is absolutely necessary. Your food should usually remain frozen for at least 36 to 48 hours if your freezer is fully loaded if and only if the door remains closed. Keep in mind that a freezer which is only half full of food will usually only keep your food frozen for approximately 24 hours.

If your power outage should happen to last for several days then you must seriously consider the use of dry ice. As an example, twenty five pounds of dry ice will should maintain freezing temperatures in a half-full freezer for two or three days. Remember that dry ice can be very brutal on your hands and you should always use tongs or gloves when handling it. Never touch any dry ice with your bare hands. When using the dry ice you should place some heavy cardboard between the food and the ice so that your packages do not become freezer burned.

Copyright @2008 Joseph Parish