Food Safety and Groceries in RB

Rancho Bernardo, like all of San Diego County, was without power for approximately 10 hours. Do you know what that means for the food that was in your refrigerator and freezer? 

Here’s a quick reference guide from the United States Department of Agriculture’s website:

Always keep meat, poultry, fish, and eggs refrigerated at or below 40°F and frozen food at or below 0°F. This may be difficult when the power is out.

• The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about four hours if it is unopened.
• A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) and if the door remains closed.
• If you have food that was not held at, or above, the above recommended temperatures, you should throw it out. 

Rancho Bernardo Patch surveyed local grocery stores to find out how they handled the blackout and whether they are open today.

• : About $2-$3,000 worth of fish was tossed out at the Rancho Bernardo location thanks to the power outage, Marketing Manager Rachel Shemirani said. A new shipment has come in (luckily the fish are warehoused at the Temecula location which did not lose power) and any other food that was questionable has been thrown out. "We're very confident that what we have on our shelves is fresh," Shemirani said.
• : "We’re thankful that all of our stores, including your Rancho Bernardo store, had power restored and are open for business this morning," said Lilia Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for the grocery chain, in an email. The stores are getting new shipments Friday, and staff will continue to monitor stores for needed updates, she said. Rodriguez said most stores had minimal losses.
• : Open regular hours today as well.

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Rancho Bernardo Patch Editor Shauntel Lowe contributed to this report.