Food Safety During and After a Power Outage

Poway, like all of San Diego County, was without power for approximately 10 hours. Do you know what that means for the food that was in your refrigerator and freezer? 

Here’s a quick reference guide from the United States Department of Agriculture’s website:

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.

• The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about four hours if it is unopened.
• A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) and if the door remains closed.
• If you have food that was not held at, or above, the above recommended temperatures, you should throw it out.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, these are the steps you can take to protect your perishables the next time power is out for longer than two hours:

“Obtain dry or block ice to keep your refrigerator as cold as possible. Fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic foot full freezer for two days.”

The following Poway grocery stores are also open and operating under normal business hours: