No Power? When to Toss Out Food

More than 650,000 Connecticut residents have no power as of Monday afternoon, which means that food is sitting in a refrigerator that is not keeping perishables as cold as they should be

When deciding what to keep and what to throw out, there are some guidelines from the Department of Public Health:

The refrigerator will keep food at the proper temperature for about four hours if you do not open the doors. A full freezer will hold a safe temperature for about 48 hours. If it is half-full, it will remain good for 24 hours.

If the temperature in your refrigerator or freezer goes above 40 degrees, throw away perishable foods such as beef, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy and cut fruits and vegetables.

You can freeze food if it still has ice crystals on it or has stayed below 40 degrees.

If food comes into contact with flood water, do not eat it, even if your food is packed in plastic that has been water damaged. Avoid drinking beverages in containers with screw-caps, snap lids, crimped caps (soda bottles), twist caps, flip tops and home canned foods if the container came in contact with flood water. These tops cannot be disinfected appropriately.

If in doubt, discard the food rather than take a chance of contracting a foodborne illness.