My power went out for about 20 hours today, from 1am to 9pm. I'm wondering if the food in my refrigerator and freezer are spoiled.
Here's some info:
High temperature was about 100F outside, but only reached 90F inside. Fridge and freezer had no power the whole time, but I didn't open them at all while the power was out.
The items I'd be concerned about:
Fridge: Milk (opened), eggs, cheese (pre-packaged, but opened), bacon (opened)
Freezer: sausage, ground beef
Actually, the ground beef stayed frozen, but the sausages are now soft.
Left to my own accord, I'm inclined not to throw anything out, but I figure I should check with the experts on this site first…
Best Answer
I had a similar issue just recently, where my apartment lost power for twelve hours before being restored. With the doors closed for the entire time, the temperature raised only a few degrees, even the milk had no difference in taste, with it only being cool as opposed to cold like usual. Like yourself, it was also at the peak of summer.
Fridges are usually pretty well insulated (as they'd have to be, or else the motors would never stop running to keep cool during the peak of summer), so outside of the eggs, if it was never opened, I wouldn't be too concerned. I only put a caveat on eggs because as someone that cant' stand eggs, I never buy them, and hence have no knowledge of how susceptible to temperature changes they are.
EDIT: Personal opinion. Do not take this as a green light to start making bacon omelettes with a big heaping glass of milk today.