If you’re thinking about going on vacation and leaving food in the freezer, this is a must-read. Today we’ll show you a simple trick that will tell you if the food you left in the freezer is safe to eat. When we’re not at home, the power goes out and we don’t know about it. However, this can cause frozen food to defrost and deteriorate.

One woman devised an ingenious method for determining whether or not our refrigerators are still in good working order – using only a mug of water and a penny! You’d never have to worry about spoilt vegetables or fruits in your fridge again if you tried this experiment…

Sheila Pulanco Russell developed the idea, and she demonstrates a fridge-mug experiment using simple tap water. It’s a simple experiment – if the penny freezes, it’s a good sign that your fridge can keep your groceries cool and frozen. If it isn’t, it’s likely that you’ll need to buy a new refrigerator to prevent food spoilage – try it at home right now!

Sheila explains how to proceed in a Facebook post that received hundreds of thousands of reactions and shares. She says: “I just heard a great tip for those of you evacuating from the coast. It’s known as the one-cup tip. You placed a cup of water in the freezer. Freeze it completely, then place a quarter on top and place it back in the freezer.

That way, when you return after being evacuated, you’ll know whether your food went bad and just refroze or if it stayed frozen while you were gone. If the quarter has sunk to the bottom of the cup, it means the food has defrosted and you should discard it.

However, if the quarter is on top or in the center of the cup, your food may still be fine. It’s also a good idea to keep this in your freezer all the time so that if you lose power for any reason, you’ll have something to fall back on.