Tuesday’s storm likely helped you clean out your refrigerators and freezers this week, whether you liked it or not. Saturday marked the end of a long week without electricity for many in Door and Kewaunee counties, especially those who could not rely on a generator to power their homes. Local businesses like Seaquist Orchards and Northern Grill in Sister Bay offered freezer space to those who needed it. Still, many others have had food in their refrigerator and freezer for days without electricity.

UW Food Scientist Barb Ingham says perishable foods such as meat, poultry, seafood, milk, and eggs that are not kept adequately refrigerated or frozen may cause illness if consumed, even when thoroughly cooked. You can find more tips here.

Depending on your policy, the cost of the food that spoils in your refrigerator and freezer could be recovered if your homeowner’s insurance covers the cause of the outage.  If you are on FoodShare, their disaster assistance program could also be an avenue to help you replace some of the food that was lost. According to the Hunger Task Force, participants can fill out a form no more than ten days after the incident where they are asked to describe how food was destroyed and provide proof of what was destroyed and the reason why.

Photo from Pixabay