When you’re picking up the weekly haul of groceries for your family, it’s tough to keep things cool in the El Paso, Texas, heat, even if you don’t have too far to go from the store. Certain foods can’t get too warm or they’ll spoil, making them unsafe to eat. Protect your family from spoiled food and stop wasting money on frozen foods that are melted by the time you get home. Take these steps to keep food cold in the warm El Paso climate.
Keep a Cooler in the Trunk
One of the easiest ways to keep your food at the right temperature is to keep a cooler in your trunk or cargo area. Coleman makes a cooler that can be plugged into your car’s 12-volt outlet, maintaining the cool temperature that your food items need to stay safe. When you place the cooler in your trunk, make sure to wrap a few bungee cords around it to keep it firmly in place. You don’t want a heavy cooler rolling around back there, especially when it’s full of potentially perishable food.
You can also use a standard cooler in your cargo area if you’d rather not shell out the cash for an electricity-powered unit. When you pick up groceries, spend a few extra dollars on a small bag of ice and place it in the cooler with your other frozen and chilled food items. When you finish and pay, place the cold stuff in the cooler with the ice bag, which will maintain a cooler temperature within the space.
Make the Grocery Store the Last Stop
For many people, running errands is an all-day procedure. You might need to drop off the dry cleaning, hit the laundromat, grab a few new pieces for your wardrobe, and get groceries. Combining all the errands into one trip will help you conserve fuel.
However, heading to the grocery store first could result in some serious food safety issues if you have meat, eggs, produce, and other things in the car that need to stay cool. This stuff could sit for several hours, especially if you have quite a few errands left to run. You don’t have to change your errand habits. Just plan your trip so that the grocery store is your last stop.
Risks of Letting Food Sit
When your groceries sit in the car too long, the risk of spoiled food goes up. According to data from the federal Food Safety and Inspection Service, you have about an hour in 90-degree heat to get your food into the refrigerator to keep it out of the danger zone. When food items that need to stay cold get into the range of 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, the rate at which bacteria multiply goes up.
Not only is there a risk of food safety issues, but you could also end up wasting money on food that your family can’t eat. If ice cream melts or juice concentrate turns into liquid, you may end up tossing the stuff that got too warm.
Save money and protect your family from food safety concerns by taking these steps when you’re on the way home from the grocery store.
Image via Flickr by goldberg licensed via CC BY 2.0
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