My friend and co-worker Beth just sent me an email telling me that a Tab exploded in her car and asking about safe ways to get groceries home in this dreadful heat. She asked if I used a cooler for transport and the answer is:
Yes–and for the first time ever.
Well, I use coolers when I go out of town and bring food back, of course, but I’ve never been one to worry too much about food staying in the heat for just a short while. But hey, we also still stuff our turkey at Thanksgiving.
Anyway, it is WAY too hot right now to leave food in the car for even a short while. I filled a soft-side cooler (like one of those silver things you see in the frozen food section at Sam’s or Costco) with a couple of cool packs before I went shopping for Bob’s birthday party on Friday. Everything that was frozen or refrigerated went in, and it all stayed cool as I made several stops. (The more you put in it, the cooler everything stays.) Really folks, be careful!
Here are a few tips from fightbac.org:
-When shopping, select refrigerated and frozen items last.
-At the grocery store, pack cold foods together in paper bags. Paper bags keep foods colder than plastic bags.
-Make the grocery store your last stop before going home.
-If you have a long distance to travel from the grocery store, take a cooler and ice packs in your car to transport perishable products. If a cooler is not practical, place perishable foods near the air conditioning vents.
Read this
Responses to “Baby, it’s HOT out there!”
August 14th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Leaving frozen food near the air conditioning vents will actually make it thaw out faster than, say, wrapping it in a towel (or better, setting it between two pillows) and setting it somewhere out of sunlight. Moving 60° air conducts heat away faster than still 75° air, and once you get the interior cooled off sufficiently the air conditioner will eventually just blow normal-temperature air.
August 14th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Now, how do you know that? Thinking about it, it makes sense. After all, running a small stream of cool water over a package of frozen food will thaw it faster than sitting it in still hot water, but I’m curious how you know. I might need to come back to you for something someday if you’re an expert…
August 14th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
I keep a soft-side cooler in my car because I live in North Memphis but usually shop for groceries in Cordova…and I don’t always head straight home afterward. I get the cold/frozen stuff last, put it in the cooler and try to get home within an hour if not less. Frozen stuff goes on bottom, cold food on top and wherever I can squeeze it in and I always make room for the milk, even if it means the fruit won’t fit. I don’t make a special effort to put the cooler by the air vents but my plan has worked so far this summer
August 14th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
I have rec’d several E-mails lately about not leaving bottled drinks or water in the car. Supposedly, extreme heat changes the composition of the materials used in making plastic bottles & can cause toxins to leach out into the liquids they contain. I have had canned drinks explode in the trunk of the car, not this year but in past years when I let them stay in there for more than a few days. My car trunk has been my winter auxiliary storage for soft drinks because taking one out to drink was just like removing one cold from the refrigerator. But now I have a spare refrigerator, so I probably won’t be doing that anymore either. It is only marginally cooler in my garage than it is outside in extreme temperatures like the ones we’re having now, even though the garage is completely in the shade. So I have tried not to leave anything edible or drinkable out there unless it’s in the refrigerator. I have noticed that when my car sits out in the sun, it is so hot to the touch that it nearly burns my hand. I sure am ready for fall!
August 14th, 2007 at 7:53 pm
I have been leaving a cooler in the car for the last few years- I have small box full of gel packs of differnet sizes that I just slip into the cooler when I leave the house. My traditional path of food gathering includes Superlo, Easy Way, Wild Oats and Fresh Market and what ever other stops that are needed, desired. It has worked great.
August 14th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I wouldn’t characterize myself as an “expert” any more than a basic engineering degree coupled with a bit of experience improvising thermal insulation to get tasty things through several hundred miles of travel provides. The gang at fightbac.org probably know more about bacteria than I’ll ever fathom, but I don’t think they make you take a heat-transfer class to get your degree in microbiology.
August 15th, 2007 at 8:22 am
I think you’re right. Insulation makes much more sense. And “basic engineering degree” rates just fine with me…
August 15th, 2007 at 11:10 am
And speaking of bottled water, I’d be interested in knowing what your blog-o-philes think about the current controversy of the non ecological correctness of bottled water!
August 15th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
As a rule, I avoid bottled water when tap water is available at the appropriate temperature, more on account of I am cheap than on account of plastic water bottles destroy the planet, but I occasionally like some San Pellegrino with Campari or Dr. James Beam’s Finest Health Tonic, which is probably ecologically disastrous (why drink Eye-talian water when we have perfectly good water here?)
On the other hand, I’ve also seen water come out of the tap in West Memphis with a slight green hue, which is only good for mixing with Galliano.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Oh, the heck with it!! Skip shopping. Let’s just order sandwiches from Fino’s (or your fave place), get extras and call it a day. But, if YOU MUST go out and grab the essentials, a shorter trip to me makes it more tolerable, i.e. Easy Way (bread, milk, eggs, bacon, salad fixings) or the asian market on Cleveland by Lobster King (think french bread, produce, noodles that need soaking no boiling, fresh herbs, and funky frozen dumplings). Grab some of the ice packs you keep in your freezer and deposit with your loot. RUN HOME!! Have a popsicle and declare victory….
August 16th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
I can tell you from personal experience that you cannot leave chicken livers in your car while you go speak to your neighbors in the driveway. If they (the livers) had just baked it would have been ok but……
August 17th, 2007 at 6:16 pm
Oh, Nancy…that experience brought new meaning to the term “funky chicken,” no doubt!
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