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No Refrigeration
During a Power Outage

Coping with no refrigeration during a power outage can be challenging. During a pandemic, you may have to live without refrigeration for several days.

What to do if there is no refrigeration. Photo by Natalie Maynor.

No refrigeration during a power outage
Photo courtesy of Natalie Maynor

You may even have to live without electricity for awhile because:

There is a mandatory pandemic quarantine in your area, and electrical workers do not show up for work.
Too many electrical workers are ill (or their family members—children, spouse, mother, father are ill), and they stay home.
The government is sending the military to keep utilities running, but there aren't enough trained people to keep all the electrical plants in the country running. Yours isn't a high priority.

What to Do First
If There is No Refrigeration

Organizing your activities will help you preserve the cool air in your refrigerator and freezer for as long as possible. This is your first priority—initially!

Here are some simple steps to take to keep your food cool as long as possible, when there is no power:

Organize your refrigerator now - Make a chart that tells you where you put items. Items (such as condiments) that you have on hand all the time are easy. Designate a shelf for leftovers, , locations for meat, juice, vegetables, and a shelf or drawer for produce that needs to be used fast, etc. Get used to using your system now, so you won't spend precious time organizing your refrigerator after the electricity goes off. Keep your chart on top of the refrigerator, where you will be sure to find it when you need it.
Use food from the refrigerator first - This food will spoil the quickest and will have the shortest shelf life. If you don't use the food in the refrigerator quickly, it will spoil and be unsafe for you to eat.
Cook only what your family will eat - You don't want to have any leftovers. You won't be able to cool leftovers, and so you will just have to discard them. Bacteria grows quickly on warm food, and eating bacteria laden food will make you sick.
Use your freezer next - When the food from your refrigerator is gone, or, when it is too old to eat (or no longer cool), eat the food from your freezer. Your freezer should be organized so that you will know where to look quickly for an item. Chicken, hamburger, cheese, vegetables, etc. Make a chart and keep it with the freezer.
You need to do this now, and stick with your organization plan. Don't wait for an emergency—keep your food organized, and make it part of your everyday routine. That way it will be routine for you to look in a certain place for a particular food.
Next, use foods from the freezer. Food which contains some ice crystals is safe to use.
Open your freezer once a day - Plan the meals that you will serve for the day. Remove the foods that you will need for the day, and close the lid or door quickly to prevent the loss of cold air. This will help to prolong the time that you will be able to use your frozen foods without electricity.
Cover your chest freezer with blankets to insulate it.
Use foods from your freezer as long as they are cold. Depending on the time of year and the location of your freezer, food in the freezer, with no refrigeration, will last about a week. When you no longer feel that the foods from your freezer are safe, stop eating those foods. It's better to throw the remaining food away, than to risk getting sick from contaminated food with no refrigeration.
Use the most perishable foods first - For example, use a baked pie or a bag of vegetables first, as these will thaw first and be unusable before a pack of solidly frozen chicken.
Then use foods from your nonperishable storage. - Work on your emergency food storage and water storage , now. Stockpile items that do not require refrigeration, like canned tuna and tub margarine.

Live without Electricity
Cold Weather

If you live in an area where it is cold when you experience a power failure, use the weather to your advantage. You can use a cooler to serve as a temporary refrigerator to keep food cool when you have no refrigeration.

Place the cooler in a cold garage, on the back porch, or in a shady spot in your backyard. If the outside temperature goes above 40 degrees F, or, if your cooler gets too warm, don't use the food.

If you contract food poisoning, you may not be able to obtain medical assistance, or, you may not want to go to the hospital where you will come into contact with sick people.

Nature Helps Cool
During a Power Outage

A natural spring or cool creek can help you keep your food cool. Use glass containers (plastic containers will float) and place food in the running water. Because a spring stays cool, even during summer months in the north, the water will keep your foods cool when you have no refrigeration.

This method works because the water continuously cools the exposed surface area of your containers. Old-time farmers used this as a way to cool fresh cow's milk or goat's milk rapidly.

Living without Electricity
Living Off the Grid

Before the time of refrigeration, people who owned "ice houses" used to cut ice from creeks and rivers (in blocks) and store the blocks of ice in barns, insulated by lots of hay, until spring and summer. Hence the term, "ice box". Blocks of ice, stored together in a building with no direct sun, would last for a few weeks.

As you can see, when you have no refrigeration, you don't have to lose all your food. To save as much of it as possible, though, you have to be very organized—and you need to have a plan.

Most of your preparation needs to be done now. That way, if you have an emergency power outage, for any reason, your family will be ready!