Food Safety Tips for When the Fridge is on the Fritz

With a little bit of effort now, you can greatly improve the chances of your food staying fresh in the event of a short power outage or other sort of appliance problem.

Adjust Your Temperature Settings : The USDA recommends keeping freezers at 0°F and fridges at 40°F. Adjusting your temperature settings to this level or colder will make it take longer for temperatures to rise to the point where food will spoil in the event of a problem.

Get Thermometers : Buy thermometers to place in your fridge and freezer so that you can measure any temperature changes that may occur if your appliance shuts down for an extended period of time. You may also want to buy a digital kitchen thermometer that can be used to test individual food items.

Keep a Full Fridge & Freezer : The fuller your fridge and freezer are, the better they hold their temperature. This is not only good for your energy bills, but can also make food survive longer in the event of a power outage or appliance failure.

Share these tips with your family so that everyone knows what to do if the fridge or freezer stops working.

As soon as the power goes out or someone notices a problem with the fridge or freezer, note the time. You’ll need to know this because foods can start to spoil after 2 hours in a broken fridge or after 2 days in a full and unopened freezer.

The less you open the fridge or freezer, the colder it’s going to stay. If you know you are going to need items from the fridge soon, consider opening it once and removing a bunch of items to place in a cooler or ice chest. This way you can access snacks and drinks without opening the fridge multiple times.

Call Authorized Appliance Repair

At Authorized Appliance, we strive to provide same-day service to all of our customers, especially for refrigerator repair. Our fast and effective service can often save you from the need to throw out the entire contents of your fridge or freezer.

Once your appliance is working again, check to see if any foods have spoiled. If you have a thermometer, you can use temperature to guide you in throwing out foods that have been kept at unsafe temperatures. You can find a complete list of types of foods and safe storage temperatures at foodsafety.gov.