What can one do to ensure good nutrition when freezers and fridges are not working? This is certainly a valid question with our regular power cuts all over the country.
But before we look at how to feed your family if you have no refrigeration facilities, let's look at how long food still remains fresh inside the fridge after a power cut.
Meltdown
There is a risk, especially in summer, of refrigerated food spoiling during a blackout. However, it does take a while for the temperature in a fridge to rise.
According to the Red Cross, as long as you keep the fridge door closed, a blackout lasting under four hours shouldn’t cause food spoilage. A freezer should keep frozen food safe for at least a day. It’s a good plan to have alternative snacks on hand that don’t need refrigeration while you’re waiting for the power to come back on, but it’s not the end of the world if you have to open the fridge door briefly.
Most medications that require refrigeration can be kept in a closed fridge for several hours without spoiling. To be sure about this though, check with your doctor or pharmacist.
If you’re expecting power outages, fill plastic containers with water, leaving some space inside each to compensate for expansion during freezing, and put these in your fridge and freezer. This water, which cools down more slowly than air in the fridge, will help keep food cold if the power goes out.
No fridge? Those of us who are lucky enough to own fridges and freezers are totally lost without them. We have forgotten how to function without food-cooling facilities.
But it is good to keep in mind that a large percentage of our population have never had the luxury of fridges and freezers and that our forebears managed well without these modern food-preservation aids.
Canned food
The first line of defence against the power cuts is to make use of canned foods.
"But canned foods do not contain any vitamins or minerals any more!" you might be saying.
Well, this is not true.
The canning process, which involves exposing foods to high temperatures in an airless environment in the can, is not as devastating to the nutrient content of the foods as most people believe.
The good news is that exposure to heat does not damage any of the minerals or trace elements in canned foods. This is logical, because minerals such as calcium and trace elements such as zinc are not changed in any way by exposure to heat.
Some of the minerals and trace elements may leach out into the liquid in the can because they are water soluble, but if you use the entire contents of the can, including the liquid, these minerals and trace elements won't be lost.
"But what about the vitamins, surely they are damaged by heat?"
The levels of some vitamins will be lower in canned foods compared to fresh foods. For example, vitamin C is sensitive to heat treatment and up to 25% of the vitamin C content can be lost by heat exposure, but other vitamins and vitamin-like compounds such as beta-carotene and lycopene may actually be enhanced by the canning process.
Researchers have found that lycopene (a so-called carotenoid that protects against prostate cancer and possibly also heart disease, and which is mainly found in tomatoes) occurs in higher, more concentrated amounts in processed foods like tomato paste and canned tomato products.
The following table shows that processed, canned tomato products contain more lycopene than fresh tomatoes:
Tomato product
Lycopene content (mg/100g)
Tomatoes, fresh
0.5 to 5.0
Tomato sauce (whole or tomato pieces)
6.2
Tomato paste
5.4 to 150.0
Tomato juice
5.0 to 11.6
Sun-dried tomatoes
46.5
Ketchup (tomato sauce in SA)
9.9 to 13.4
(Health, Tomatoes & Lycopene, p. 2)
When it comes to vitamin C, you should keep in mind that even if a food like orange juice loses 25% of its vitamin C, it will still contain enough per serving to provide you with your recommended daily allowance (RDA).
For example, fresh orange juice contains about 50 mg of vitamin C per 100 ml, or 67% of the RDA for vitamin C for adults.
Canned, unsweetened orange juice contains 34 mg of vitamin C per 100 ml, or 45% of the adult RDA. If you drink a standard 300 ml glass of the canned product (3 x 34 mg = 102 mg), you will still be ingesting more than the 75 mg of vitamin C you require on a daily basis.
It is, therefore, sensible to make use of canned foods. Nowadays, some canned foods are also sold in pouches, and you can use both canned and pouched food during power outages.
Milk
Milk is so rich in nutrients that fresh milk spoils without refrigeration. But thanks to the long-life method of preservation, you can have long-life milk, custard and even cream when your fridge is out of commission.
Long-life products will keep for a few days after opening without refrigeration, as any hiker or camper will be able to tell you.
Then there is powdered milk, which allows you to make up milk in just the right quantities for your daily needs. Do not make litres of milk when you don't have the facilities to keep the milk cool – make just enough for each meal.
Condensed milk is also an option, if you are really desperate, but it has a high-energy content and can cause weight gain over time.
European shopping habits
People in Europe have been shopping for their fresh produce on a daily basis for thousands of years. Most French or Italian housewives would be horrified to purchase fruit and vegetables, fish and even meat only once a week.
These thrifty housewives buy their food fresh on a daily basis. This may seem strange to people who like to shop once a week or in some cases, only once a month, but it makes sense when you don't have refrigeration facilities to store perishable foods.
Think about stopping at the green grocer on your way home to buy salad ingredients and fresh fruit for your family. Even if you do this only once or twice a week, you will be ensuring that they do get some fresh fruit and vegetables.
Some fruits keep better than others for a few days at room temperature, for example, bananas, citrus fruit, spanspek, slightly unripe plums, apples and pears.
Cooking tips
By now, most inhabitants of the Western Cape have probably purchased gas cylinders and are cooking their food over gas.
You may have to juggle pots around to keep them warm, but at least this is one way of heating food.
If you have a 'skottel', then you can prepare a number of items at once, for example, fry eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms and bacon simultaneously.
Do not forget the 'potjie', a well-beloved method of cooking delicious stews that evolved in the days before fridges and freezers. You can prepare an entire meal, containing meat, vegetables and starches such as potatoes or sweet potatoes, in one pot.
Cooling tips
In the days before fridges, many people had figured out how to keep food cool. Most farmers had a well-ventilated room in which they kept fruits, vegetables and even meat and milk.
If you have an area in your home that is well ventilated (in the Cape, this should not be difficult with the howling southeaster), store foods there. To ensure further cooling, drape clean cloths dipped in water over the food items.
The evaporation of water will cool down the food and you will be pleasantly surprised about how long food items can be stored without spoiling.
The last resort
If you are worried that your family is not getting sufficient vitamins (the minerals should not be a problem as mentioned above), use vitamin supplements for the period of the power outages.
Vitamin C is probably the most vulnerable vitamin, with the B-complex vitamins a close second. Try to buy supplements that contain vitamin C and the B-complex vitamins, and take these supplements every second day.
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