Power outages occur ever now and then. It can happen when you are away on a business trip, vacation or even a short expedition.
It is not possible to know how long was the power out, also impossible to know if the food in your freezer has thawed and gotten bad and refrozen. Note that bacteria rapidly multiply at a temperature between 40 and 140 °F (4 – 60 °C). You will definitely want to know if you need to discard any contaminated food.
Now, we present you a neat trick.
Fill up a cup with water, freeze it into solid form and then place a coin on top. Yes, its just that simple.
How does it work?
So you came home to find the coin at the bottom of the frozen ice. This means the power went out long enough for the ice to melt, the coin fell to the bottom and the power went back up – long enough for water to re-froze.
It’s also possible you might find the coin at the bottom of a cup of water – which meant the power has been out for some time resulting in the coin falling into the bottom of the melted ice.
Ice will take an extremely long time to melt in a freezer, which is pretty insulated even in the time of power shortage. The coin found at the bottom of the cup is a great indicator that your food has probably turned bad, and discarding them would be your next step.
A very simple yet effective trick for anyone going away on a vacation. You don’t have to discard food unnecessarily; and it can prevent the risk of eating contaminated food, saving you a potential trip to the doctor.
