Originally published Dec. 21, 2023.
Social media was abuzz this week with discussions among hunters about the extended power outage and the best way to protect the game meat they painstakingly put in their freezers as part of their winter larder.
Leave the freezer closed. Open the freezer and add bags of ice to the top. Don’t use regular ice because it melts too quickly and makes the meat thaw faster. Take everything out and put it in coolers with ice. Use dry ice. Preserve the meat with salt instead. Cook it and can it.
The suggestions from the hunters, and variations on them, seemed endless. But there are safe ways to make sure meat makes it through a power outage.
You can refreeze or cook thawed frozen food that contains ice crystals or is at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That takes care of safe consumption, but keeping the meat frozen in the first place calls for specific techniques.
The University of Maine Cooperative Extension recommends keeping the freezer closed. The amount of insulation in the freezer, whether the unit is full of food and the type of food in it will all affect how many days the contents will stay frozen.
For example, food will thaw more quickly if the freezer’s contents are primarily baked goods. If it’s full of just meat, the food will stay frozen longer.
Food will not begin to spoil in fewer than three days in a well-sealed and insulated 4-cubic-foot freezer, even in the summer. If it is a 12- to 36-cubic-foot freezer, you have five to eight days depending on how cold the food is, according to the Extension Service.
The larger the freezer, the longer the food inside will stay frozen, especially if the unit is full. You can also cover the freezer with crumpled newspaper, blankets or quilts. Be careful to leave the air vents open.
It’s best to plan ahead if you want to use dry ice for an expected power outage. Make sure you have a place where you can buy it, maybe even from a business that uses it for its own purposes, such as a dairy or cold storage enterprise.
Take special precautions when using dry ice, the Extension says.
One important rule is to wear gloves, as dry ice can cause tissue damage and severe frostbite.
It also gives off carbon dioxide, which can be toxic to people and can cause an explosion if locked into a tight space, making proper ventilation important. Freezers should not be locked nor should air vents be blocked by blankets when using dry ice in the unit, according to the Extension Service.
If you are not sure about what can be refrozen and what should be thrown out once your power is back, Foodsafety.gov, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has a handy chart that can guide you.
