Keep citrus, dates, uncut melons, nectarines, peaches, pears, peppers, and tomatoes on the counter for a week or two. Store apples, garlic, onions, potatoes, and squash in a cool dark place such as a root for a month.
Discard refrigerated perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and leftovers after 4 hours without power. After a power outage never taste food to determine its safety. You will have to evaluate each item separately—use this chart as a guide.
Living without a fridge may make it seem like you need to rely on food from restaurants and fast food, but luckily this isn't true. You can eat healthy at home even without access to cold storage! In this article we will walk you through some of the main ingredients to rely on if you don't have a fridge.
Seasonal Eating: Without refrigeration, people's diets heavily depended on what was in season. This meant fresh fruits and vegetables in summer and a lot of preserved foods, like pickled vegetables and salted meats, in winter.
TWO HOURS is the MAXIMUM time perishable foods should be at room temperature (ONE HOUR at temperatures 90 degrees F and higher). This INCLUDES the time they're on the table during your meal. Just ONE bacterium, doubling every 20 minutes, can grow to over 2,097,152 bacteria in 7 hours!
Good options include low-sodium canned beans, vegetables, fruit (packed in fruit juice), breakfast cereal, peanut butter, pouches of fully cooked whole grains, nuts, whole-wheat crackers, snack bars, and shelf-stable milk or plant milk (the kind sold in aseptic boxes in the grocery aisle).
Eating local, seasonal food is the best way to ensure the freshness of your food. Going to your local fruit market is best as these foods have likely not been refrigerated before and will therefore last longer.
Just gather some ceramic pots, sand, and water, and you've got a portable, non-electric DIY mini-fridge with a time-tested design. After all, people were preserving food for thousands of years before you had to keep that leftover takeout from stinking up your college dorm.
If you need to keep food/drinks cold (but not frozen) for an extended period, like for camping or a road trip, dry ice can be used to convert a cooler into a refrigerator!
Foods that can be safely stored at room temperature, or “on the shelf,” are called “shelf stable.” These non-perishable products include jerky, country hams, canned and bottled foods, rice, pasta, flour, sugar, spices, oils, and foods processed in aseptic or retort packages and other products that do not require ...
Opt for Non-Perishable Foods
Choose shelf-stable items such as canned beans, vegetables, soups, dried pasta, grains, and jarred sauces. Fresh produce like apples, oranges, carrots, and bell peppers have longer shelf lives without refrigeration.
Generally, a burger shouldn't be left unrefrigerated for more than 2 hours.
Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature. The refrigerator will keep food cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will keep the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door remains closed.
Anything perishable should go into the fridge within two hours. If perishables are sitting in temperatures of more than 90 °F, the time limit to get them into the fridge goes down to one hour. Examples include leftovers, boiled or fried rice, pasta salad, cut fruit, and poultry, meat and seafood.
If you want to preserve food, you could get an ice chest. You'd have to supply it with ice or dry ice, both of which are ongoing expenses and would almost certainly cost more than a refrigerator over time. You could also dig a cellar, which would allow for lower temperatures than the surface, but not by much.
Vegetables were often salted or pickled. Many fruits were dried or turned in preserves. These foods could then be stored in cool places, like cellars and caves. This allowed people to save food for times of need during droughts and famines.
Fill sealable plastic bags or water bottles with water and freeze them overnight to make ice packs. You can also use a bag of ice cubes. Place your DIY ice packs or ice cubes at the bottom and around the sides of the box.
One basic rule for living without a refrigerator is to buy fruits and vegetables that have never been refrigerated. Buy them at the local market or in the non-perishable section of the supermarket. Once they have been refrigerated, we can't keep them at room temperature for more than a few days, as they start to spoil.
“Always return any unused butter to the refrigerator and be aware that butter left outside refrigeration may become darker in color and have the flavor affected.” Keeping butter in the fridge is a good rule of thumb as it ensures the tasty fat won't take on any undesirable odors or flavors from your kitchen.