When your fridge stops working, there are a few important steps to take. First, you should determine if the failure is permanent or temporary. If it is temporary, it is possibly due to a power outage. But if the failure is permanent, it’s crucial to look into a refrigerator repair service sooner rather than later. Finding a reputable repair company can help get your fridge back up and running in no time. But most importantly, you need to figure out how to save your food now. Fortunately, there are a few simple ways to keep your food fresh and safe until your fridge is fixed.

Sort your food

The first thing you should do is to sort your food so you know which food to keep cold while your fridge is out of order. Unfortunately, you probably won’t be able to keep all th food in your fridge cold, but you can certainly try. If there isn’t enough room, you can decide which foods to preserve the fastest to prevent bacterial growth. Items like eggs, dairy products, meat, and leftovers should be prioritized. Other food items, like fruits, vegetables, condiments, and herbs can survive out of the cold for a bit.

Keep an eye on the fridge temperature

If your fridge is only going to be broken for a short amount of time, you may be able to keep food inside while it’s off. As long as you don’t continuously open and close the fridge door, the inside of the fridge will remain cold for a short period of time. So keep food in the fridge until you absolutely have to move it—but you need to keep an eye on the temperature. If the inside of the fridge remains 40 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, your food will be fine inside. But if the temperature rises above 40 degrees Fahrenheit for longer than two hours, bacteria will start to grow. Using the fridge thermometer, continue to check the temperature to know when you have to move food.

Utilize a cooler

When the fridge temperature rises too high or you find out the fridge won’t be fixed for a while, it’s time to transfer food items out of the fridge. Food that needs to remain cold should be put into a cooler. So gather up whatever coolers you have on hand or maybe buy one or two if you need to. Before you transfer food into a cooler, make sure you have ice to keep the cooler cold—you can use ice packs, bags of ice, or even other frozen food. If you use frozen food, like bags of frozen vegetables, to keep your other food cold, you need to dispose of them if they thaw out. But once you have ice or ice packs and coolers, transfer your food from the fridge. Make sure to replace the ice as needed to keep food safe.

Prioritize safety

While you may want to save the food in your fridge to avoid having to spend money to replace it, you need to keep food safety in mind. If you leave perishable food unrefrigerated for longer than a two hour period, there is a chance that bacteria will start to grow. And if you eat this food, you could get really sick. So don’t eat unsafe food just because you don’t want it to go to waste. Always check the temperature of the fridge, replenish ice in coolers, and simply throw out food that is no longer good. While you should do what you can to save your food while your fridge isn’t working, eating bad food is not worth the risk of getting sick.

Having a broken fridge can be inconvenient and frustrating. But if you do what you can to keep your food cold and research refrigerator repair in Bend Oregon, you should be able to save your favorite foods with ease.