How long will food stay frozen in iced cooler?

Answer 1

About two days. find a dry ice company and add some dry ice in the meantime.

Food should last 2 days if the freezer is fully loaded. If it is only half full, then expect the food to last 1 day. Keep the door closed and do not open it unnecessarily. Try to keep an eye on the temperature of the food. If it stays below 40°F, it should be OK.

More details are in the attached links.

Answer 2

The amount of time meat will stay frozen in a cooler really depends on the kind of cooler you choose, say, a hard shell cooler versus a foam cooler (Expanded Polystyrene or EPS cooler).

An EPS cooler, if properly made, will keep meat frozen quite a bit longer than a hard shell (plastic or metal) one due to the insulating properties of EPS foam.

There is an entire industry of meat shipping that revolves around the use of EPS foam "shippers" which are basically just foam coolers with sealing lids that don't allow air to escape. Among the best are LoBoy EPS Foam Shippers that can keep ice itself cold for days rather than hours.

The thinner the 'wall' of a cooler, the faster ice melts and that means the faster frozen meat thaws. So, you really want a THICK WALL COOLER that's at least an inch thick and with a density of at least 1.2 pounds per cubic foot. With that, you can have more confidence with shipping frozen or cold meats, or just have more peace of mind in a natural emergency such as a hurricane.

Of course, other factors play a role, such as outside temperature. Meat in a cooler in direct sunlight inside a hot car will thaw much faster than meat in a cooler kept in the shade. In the northern hemisphere, the north side of a house may be several degrees cooler than the south side.

The previous editor wrote:

Top performer coolers will stay cold for around 12 hours with a sufficient amount of ice. Unfortunately no cooler is perfect. A cooler is only meant to keep things cold , not frozen. As the ice melts the temp is going to go up. Frozen meat will begin to thaw as soon as the temp goes above 32 degrees. Using dry ice will keep the temp below the 32 degree level. How long it takes to thaw also depends on how far below 32 degrees the meat is when it is put in the cooler. A steak for instance which is at 25 degrees will begin to thaw sooner than one which is at 5 degrees below 0.

All the above notwithstanding meat will keep no longer than about 2 days in even the best performing coolers on the market.

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Thing is, that kind of "top performer" is generally going to be a hard shell cooler, which is why no meat-packing company or seafood store who ships meat will use a hard shell cooler to do it. EPS foam coolers (commonly referred to as foam shippers) are the best, most economical tool for the job, and they are 100% recyclable.

Answer 3

depends how cold your freezer is, normally 1-2 hours

Answer 4

It depends of room temperature and the climate that is around it.

Answer 5

one night

Answer 6

18-24 hours