We recently had several power outages due to late spring storms. None of the outages lasted long enough to worry about food spoiling, but we were home and knew how long we were without power. This made me wonder:
If I left home for a weekend and came back to the stove/coffee pot/microwave flashing (indicating a power loss), what could I do to determine if it had been out long enough for food to become dangerous in the refrigerator (say four hours)?
If I opened the refrigerator and it stunk, that would be a clear indicator, but food can become dangerous well before that point. I'm looking for answers that I would likely already have around the house to know this or something I could build/buy/whatever in advance that would allow me to know this.