Health experts speak on food safety due to power outages

(CBS DETROIT) - Tens of thousands of DTE customers are still without power after severe storms knocked out power to over 200,000 customers Tuesday night.

Those same households are now forced to grapple with spoiled food.

"If your fridge has been out for longer than four hours, your food is in threat for foodborne illness," said Ashlee Carnahan, a registered dietician at Henry Ford Health.

"Things like whole fruits such as apples, oranges and whole veggies like tomatoes or peppers should be fine," Carnahan said.

Carnahan added that the main problem will be things like eggs, milk, and meats that should be thrown away after four hours. She said if the temperature inside your refrigerator is over 41 degrees, you may also be in the clear, but that's not always foolproof.

"Things in your freezer are safer for 24 hours," Carnahan told CBS News Detroit. "Especially if you still have those crystals and you're below the 41-degree mark."

Carnahan understands this week's storms really put a lot of people in bad shape –

But stressed that no one wants to add food-borne illness to the list of problems they have right now.

"There's some risky business in foodborne illness," Carnahan said. "So you don't want that to happen either. There's no price on your health, right? You want to be safer than sorry."