Keeping Your Food During A Power Failure with Dry Ice

No Electricity? No Freezer? Whether it's a summer windstorm or winter ice storm, what do you do with a freezer (or fridge) full of food when the power fails? Continental Carbonic Products, Inc. has gathered this information to help you plan ahead and be prepared. First of all, look at our dry ice locations and find the Continental Carbonic dry ice location nearest you, print out the information and tape it to your freezer.

If your freezer or fridge has a mechanical failure, can you quickly move the food to a neighbor's or friend's refrigerator or freezer? If the power has failed in your neighborhood, then you must watch the time. Food in a refrigerator will keep about four to six hours if you do not open the door. Food in a freezer will keep about 48 hours if the freezer is full, 24 hours if half full. Food in the freezer section of a refrigerator will stay frozen for about a day if the refrigerator door isn't opened and the freezer section is full.

Dry ice, which is solid carbon dioxide, is very cold and will keep frozen food frozen if you can get it into the freezer before the food begins to thaw. Put a piece of cardboard on top of the food and put the dry ice on the cardboard. CAUTION: Dry ice is very cold and will freeze your skin severely if you touch it. Wear heavy gloves when handling dry ice. Please review our dry ice safety tips. Print them out now and tape them to your freezer along with the map so you have them when the power fails.

If you have advance warning of power failure (you see ice starting to form on the electric wires, for example) you can turn the cold controls to a lower setting to add "cool" to the food. If you load raw food at the bottom of your freezer and ready-to-eat food at the top, you can help store the cold better. You can also add insulation to the freezer by putting blankets or newspapers around it, but be sure to remove them immediately when the power comes back, due to the risk of overheating (fire) when the freezer starts to run again. Keep the freezer full, with gel-packs or even plastic bottles of frozen water, to help store cold. Keep an accurate thermometer in your freezer and refrigerator, right next to the door.

If the freezer food still has ice crystals, it can be re-frozen. If the temperature never gets above 40 degrees F. in the refrigerator, you may be OK; for details, see the USDA recommendations. "When in doubt, throw it out."

Finally, clean the interior of your fridge and freezer after power has been restored. Keep the phone number of your nearest Continental Carbonic Products dry ice location handy at your phone.

Call Continental Carbonic toll-free at 800-DRY-ICE2 to buy dry ice. Visit our News Archive to find out about more ways to use dry ice.