On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 08:30:13 -0600, Janet B >
wrote:

>On Sun, 30 Aug 2015 18:18:58 -0700, "Julie Bove"
> wrote:
>
>>Due to more wacky weather here, I have had to toss out most of my frozen and
>>refrigerated food.
>snip
>For 12 hours, I wouldn't have tossed anything. Twelve hours would
>mean I was getting antsy about the ice cream in the freezer. Of
>course, we wouldn't open the fridge or freezer doors at all. At 12
>hours I might find a little condensation forming on stuff but
>everything is still solid. Cleaning and tossing the contents of my
>fridge/freezer combination could mean an expense of $500 or so. I
>know that for sure from when we had a fire in our fridge and had to
>submit a claim to the insurance company. I made a list of everything
>in the fridge/freezer and went to the store and priced everything.

I always keep a ziploc bag of ice cubes in my freezer to check if the
power goes out. If they are still separate cubes, everything is fine.
If they have melted into a puddle that means the freezer got too warm,
and the contents will have to be taken out. I wouldn't automatically
toss anything, though. You can cook and re-freeze a lot of meats.

The ice cube method is also a good way to know if your power has gone
out then come back on again if you are away somewhere. My daughter
does this at her cottage.

Doris