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Is Food In The Refrigerator And Freezer Safe To Eat After A Power Failure?

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Your power is out. What should you do with all that food in your fridge and freezer?

The Basic Rules For Leftovers

According to the March 2010 edition of the Nutrition Action Healthletter (Center for Science in the Public Interest), you should follow these general rules:

  • The mantra is:  2 Hours–2 Inches–4 Days
  • 2 Hours from oven to refrigerator: Refrigerate or freeze your leftovers within 2 hours of cooking. Throw them away if they are out longer than that.
  • 2 Inches thick to cool it quick: Store your food at a shallow depth–about 2 inches–to speed chilling.
  • 4 Days in the refrigerator–otherwise freeze it:  use your leftovers that are stored in the fridge within 4 days. The exceptions are stuffing and gravy– which should be used within 2 days. Reheat solid leftovers to 165 degrees F and liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Toss what you don’t finish.

Food Safety

The following food safety information is from the CDC:

  • If power is out for less than two hours food in the refrigerator and freezer will be safe to eat. While the power is out keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible.  This helps to keep food cold for a longer period of time.
  • The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about four  hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door remains closed.
  • If power is out for longer than 2 hours follow these guidelines:
    • Freezer:  “A freezer that is half full will hold food safely for up to 24 hours. A full freezer will hold food safely for 48 hours. Do not open the freezer door if you can avoid it.”
    • Refrigerator: “Pack milk, other dairy products, meat, fish, eggs, gravy, and spoilable leftovers into a cooler surrounded by ice. Inexpensive Styrofoam coolers are fine for this purpose. Use a food thermometer to check the temperature of your food right before you cook or eat it. Throw away any food that has a temperature of more than 40 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Can Thawed Or Partially Thawed Food In The Freezer Be Frozen Again?

According to the USDA:  “food may be safely refrozen if the food still contains ice crystals or is at 40 °F or below. You will have to evaluate each item separately. Be sure to discard any items in either the freezer or the refrigerator that have come into contact with raw meat juices. Partial thawing and refreezing may reduce the quality of some food, but the food will remain safe to eat. See the attached charts for specific recommendations.”

What If Flood Water Covered Food Stored On Shelves And In Cabinets? 

According to the USDA follow these guidelines for what can be kept or should be thrown out:  “Do not eat any food that may have come into contact with flood water. Discard any food that is not in a waterproof container if there is any chance that it has come into contact with flood water. Food containers that are not waterproof include those with screw-caps, snap lids, pull tops, and crimped caps. Also, discard cardboard juice/milk/baby formula boxes and home canned foods if they have come in contact with flood water, because they cannot be effectively cleaned and sanitized.”

For more specific information please visit this USDA site.

 

For more holiday eating tips, strategies, and information check out my book,  The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide:  How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, available from Amazon for your kindle or kindle reader.

Really, How Many Calories Are In That Piece Of Candy?

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It might help a bit with Halloween candy mooching if you have some information about the calories in those seemingly innocent little mini bars of candy.  A lot of adults care — some don’t — and most kids could care less about calories.

One night of candy overload isn’t going to break the bank.  You won’t gain ten pounds and neither will your child(ren).  You and they might feel lousy after so much sugar, your concentration may not be the greatest, and you might be sluggish and irritable.  But, your pants will still fit and your sunny personality will see the light of day – if the candy indulgences don’t become a frequent occurrence.

A treat is only a treat if it happens once in a while.  If it’s a common occurrence it far too frequently becomes an expectation or a habit.

Calories in Halloween candy (Source: fitsugar)

1 treat size (fun size)

Calories

Fat (g)

Sugar (g)

Snickers

71

3.6

7.6

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup

88

5.2

8

Reese’s Caramel Cup

100

5

11

Reese’s Nutrageous

95

5.5

7.5

Milky Way

77

2.9

10.2

Butterfinger

85

3.5

8.5

Almond Joy

91

5.1

9.2

Milk Duds

40

2

6.3

M&Ms

90

4

11.5

Peanut M&Ms

93

4.7

9.1

Nestle’s Crunch

51.3

2.7

5.6

Peppermint Pattie

47

1

8.6

Kit Kat

73

3.7

.67

Dots

70

0

11

Skittles

80

.8

15

Jelly Belly Jellybeans

35

0

7

3 Musketeers

63.3

2

10

Milky Way

75

3

10

Hershey’s Bar

66.7

4

7.7

Take 5

105

5.5

9

100 Grand

95

4

11

Nerds

50

0

12

Whoppers

100

4

13

Mike & Ike

50

0

9

SweeTarts

10

0

2.4

3 Tips To Avoid Pre-Halloween Sugar Overload

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Halloween conjures up images of ghosts, ghouls, witches – and candy corn, tootsie rolls, snickers, and kit-kats.  The Halloween costumes vary depending on what’s trendy – and the Halloween candy varies depending on what’s on sale, what you buy, what you like or dislike, and what makes it’s way into the house in trick or treat bags.

Halloween happens.  Trick or treating happens.  Candy is around – everywhere.  You’re probably going to eat some candy.  So, make a plan for when and how much.  If it’s one day of candy it’s no big deal – but, days and weeks worth of candy can definitely be a big and weighty deal.

But – you don’t have to attack the bags full of your favorite sweet stuff in the days and weeks leading up to Halloween.  You know the scenario – you bought those big bags because they were such a good price – and then you end up having to buy more candy to give to trick or treaters because the candy you bought at such a bargain price has been devoured.

Three Tips To Avoid Eating Candy Before Halloween

  1. Don’t buy candy ahead of time.  It’s so darn easy to be swayed by the monster sized bags of midget candy bars or sweet tarts, or M&Ms, or tootsie roll pops.  The bags are priced to sell and practically jump off the shelves at you as you walk down the aisles in the grocery store or drug store.  The retailers are just itching to sell you candy nice and early so you have to come back for a repeat buying performance.
  2. When you buy candy – even if it’s the day before or the day of Halloween, buy candy you hate – or at least dislike.  Very simply – if you don’t like it, there’s less of a chance you’ll eat it.  It doesn’t mean that you won’t eat it – just that it’s less likely that you will — and if you do, maybe it won’t be the whole bag.
  3. If the candy does make its way into your house or your workplace – get it out of your sightline.  It’s very simple:  if you see it you eat it.  And, we’re lazy – so the more energy you need to use to get to the candy, the less likely you are to do it.  So, hide it in the back of the top shelf of the cabinet, or in the freezer, or in the basement, or in the garage.  Be creative – just don’t forget where you’ve hidden it so that you have to buy more and then, months later, you find old Halloween candy when you’re cleaning out some random closet.

For more tips and strategies on handling holiday eating from Halloween right through Valentine’s Day be sure to read my new book, The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, coming soon to Kindle and Kindle readers.

Why Is A Carved Pumpkin A Jack-o’-Lantern?

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Jack-O'-Lantern with carved eye
Jack-O’-Lantern

The Legend of The Jack-O’-Lantern 

As the story goes, there was a miserable old drunk named Stingy Jack.   He liked to play tricks on his family, friends — even the Devil —  and he tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree.   Once the Devil was up in the tree, Stingy put crosses around the apple tree’s trunk so the Devil couldn’t get down.  He then told the Devil that if he promised not to take Jack’s soul when he died he would remove the crosses and let the Devil down from the tree.

When Jack died, Saint Peter waiting for him at the pearly gates of Heaven, told him that he couldn’t enter Heaven because he was mean, cruel, and had led a miserable and worthless life. So, Stingy Jack then went down to Hell but the Devil wouldn’t take him in either because of what Jack had done to him.  Jack was scared and with nowhere to go he had no choice but to wander around in the darkness between Heaven and Hell.

Stingy Jack asked the Devil how he could stop wandering around without a light to see.  The Devil threw him an ember from the flames of Hell. One of Jack’s favorite foods, which he always had when he could steal one, had been a turnip.  So he put the ember into a hollowed out turnip and from that day on, Stingy Jack, without a resting place, roamed the earth lighting his way with his “Jack-O’-Lantern.”

And so goes the legend of the Jack-O’-Lantern that dates back hundreds of years in Irish history.

Halloween And The Jack-O’-Lantern

Halloween, or the Hallow E’en as it’s called in Ireland and Scotland, is short for All Hallows Eve, or the night before All Hallows.  On All Hallows Eve the Irish made Jack-O’-Lanterns by hollowing out turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes, and beets and then putting lights in them to keep away both the evil spirits and Stingy Jack.  In the 1800′s when Irish immigrants came to America, they discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve, and the pumpkin became the Jack-o’-Lantern.

If You Want To Eat Your Pumpkin . . .

Jumping from legend to fact:  pumpkins are Cucurbitaceae, a family of vegetables that includes cucumbers and melons. They are fat free and can be baked, steamed, or canned.

One cup of pumpkin has about 30 calories and is high in vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber, and has other nutrients such as folate, manganese, and omega 3′s.  Pumpkin is filled with the anti-oxidant beta-carotene, which gives it its rich orange hue. It’s versatile and can be added to baked goods and blended with many different kinds of food. When pureed pumpkin is used to replace some or all of the fat in baked goods, it significantly decreases the calories while keeping the cake, muffin, or other baked good moist.

Pumpkin seeds are delicious and are a good source of iron, copper, and zinc.  Although pumpkin flesh is low in calories, pumpkin seeds are not.   They have 126 calories in an ounce (about 85 seeds) and 285 calories in a cup.

5 Tips To Make Your Grilled Meat Healthier

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Grilled meat tastes good (of course you have to like meat).  Unfortunately, two types of cancer causing compounds can increase or form in some foods that are grilled or cooked at high heat.

Two Dangerous Compounds

Heterocycline amines (HCAs) increase when meat — especially beef — is cooked with high heat – not just by grilling but by pan-frying, too. HCAs can damage DNA and start the development of cancer.  Most evidence connects them to colon and stomach cancer, but they may be linked to other types of cancer, too.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) increase with grilling because they form in smoke and can get deposited on the outside of meat.

Five Things You Can Do

Here are five things you can do to decrease the formation of HCAs and PAHs:

  1. Cook or fry at lower temperatures to produce fewer HCAs.   You can turn the  gas down or wait for the charcoal’s low-burning embers.
  2. Raise your grilling surface up higher and turn your meat very frequently to reduce charring — which is highly carcinogenic. Grilling fish takes less cooking time and forms fewer HCAs than beef, pork and poultry.
  3. Marinate your meat.  According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, marinating can reduce HCA formation by as much as 92 to 99%. Scientists think that the antioxidants in marinades help block HCA formation.
  4. Add some spices and rubs. Rosemary and turmeric, for example, seem to block up to 40% of HCA formation because of their antioxidant activity. A study by Kansas State University found that rubbing rosemary onto meat before grilling greatly decreased HCA levels.  Basil, mint, sage, and oregano may be effective, too.
  5. Select leaner cuts of meat and trim excess fat to help reduce PAHs. Leaner cuts drip less fat – and dripping fat causes flare-ups and smoke which can deposit PAHs on your food.