Recently, power outages have been hitting every part of Bangladesh and bringing miseries to the daily lives of millions. Amidst this power failure, the food in your fridge and freezer could be at risk of spoiling. Luckily, there are lots of things you can do to avoid this situation. Here’s what you can do, during a power outage to ensure the safety of your food.
The food in your refrigerator and freezer doesn’t go bad instantly. The refrigerated foods should remain safe at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, while frozen foods should remain at 0 degrees Fahrenheit or below. Constantly opening the door will cause the temperature in the refrigerator to rise faster. Hence, one of the first things that you can do during a power outage is to keep the doors of your refrigerator and freezer closed as much as possible. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), during a power outage, a closed refrigerator will maintain its temperature for up to 4 hours and a closed freezer will keep its temperature for 24 hours if the refrigerator is half-full and 48 hours if it’s filled with food[i]. Hence, depending on the length of the outage, some of your perishable food can be saved if you just stop opening your fridge.
Compared to a refrigerator, a freezer can hold a safe temperature for longer. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suggests that shifting some of your refrigerated food to your freezer can keep those at a safe temperature for a longer span of time[ii]. In Bangladesh, although the temperature is relatively higher than the USA, still you can save your food from spoiling, filling the empty space of your freezer with perishable items that you don’t need immediately from your refrigerator In this way, you can extend the length of time your foods remain safe without electricity.
Nowadays, many brands craft their refrigerators with innovative features that delay the rise in temperature when the power is off. For instance, Samsung refrigerators come with a feature named “Coolpack” to safeguard your perishable foods from spoiling quickly during a blackout. During the power outage, the Coolpack features helps absorb a large amount of heat from the freezer section, which supports in maintaining a low temperature and keeping the food cool. With the help of this feature, the food can be preserved for 12 hours. Also, consumers can enjoy up to BDT 16,000 cashback upon purchasing Samsung refrigerators starting from BDT 38,900.
As power outages have become a part and parcel of our daily lives now, we have to ensure that the foods in our refrigerator are adequately refrigerated or frozen. If you follow the above-mentioned guidelines and have a refrigerator that is built with innovative features like Samsung refrigerator’s “Coolpack”, you can easily ensure the food safety in your refrigerator amidst power outage.
