# Driving with frozen food



## natasha5687

We are going on vacation next week and I was wondering about taking frozen food along.  We typically fly so we norally just buy food when we arrive.  Our drive will be about 8 hours.  I have some of those insulated bags but they only advertise to keep food hot or cold for up to 4 hours.  Is it even realistic to think that I can just take my frozen meats with me on this trip?  If I can what is the best method for storing them?


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## Passepartout

If you REALLY want to keep it frozen, use a good, solid cooler, pack it full, and put dry ice on top of the food. Using those bags will just amount to somewhat controlled thawing. Your food will be ready to cook when you reach your destination.

Jim


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## natasha5687

Passepartout said:


> If you REALLY want to keep it frozen, use a good, solid cooler, pack it full, and put dry ice on top of the food. Using those bags will just amount to somewhat controlled thawing. Your food will be ready to cook when you reach your destination.
> 
> Jim



Any suggestions on where I would find dry ice?


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## rapmarks

one local grocery store carried it when we needed it.
I think if you pack your cooler very tightly with ice and for example, have a tray of frozen lasagna in it too.  you would have something for dinner that night and some partially frozen items you could use the next day and another day if refrigerated in meat drawer promptly on arrival.  wouldn't pack much beyond that though.

my son n law flew with a cooler packed solid with frozen items, was about 8 hours total, and nothing thawed at all.


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## pedro47

rapmarks said:


> one local grocery store carried it when we needed it.
> I think if you pack your cooler very tightly with ice and for example, have a tray of frozen lasagna in it too.  you would have something for dinner that night and some partially frozen items you could use the next day and another day if refrigerated in meat drawer promptly on arrival.  wouldn't pack much beyond that though.



Walmart and Kroger


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## DeniseM

You probably have a local ice company that sells large quantities of ice to large events and bagged ice to grocery stores - they should carry it.  You need to pack it in a heavy duty ice chest - that will make all the difference.


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## javabean

*traveling with frozen food*

We frequently travel with frozen food from NY state to Hilton Head or Orlando. 
We have found that using the thick walled coolers from Omaha Steaks or similar businesses that deliver frozen foods to your home work very well. If I don't have one, a shout out to friends via email or Facebook usually finds one. 
We cut lasagna into "bricks" after baking and chilling, and then freeze the bricks. Butter/spread is also frozen, as are the meats. We also use ice packs if needed. If we have to stay somewhere overnight we will try for a hotel that has kitchen such as Residence Inn or SpringHill Suites and put the food in the freezer over night. Many travel hotels that provide breakfast will allow you to put your frozen food cooler into their walk in freezer, at least until early morning breakfast. 
We have been very successful with this approach. As you are traveling a shorter distance you should have little problem keeping the frozen stuff frozen. Safe travels.


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## Tahiya

*dry ice*

Baskin Robbins sells dry ice.  We usually just freeze ice for the ice chest in half gallon milk cartons.


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## Elan

DeniseM said:


> You need to pack it in a heavy duty ice chest - that will make all the difference.



  Agree. I have a massive Igloo cooler (150 quarts, IIRC; can't even remember why I bought it) and it's impressive in it's ability to keep ice as ice.  Many days after packing it, I still have ice.  In this regard it performs much better than my smaller coolers.


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## BJRSanDiego

It might be a good idea if transporting dry ice in a car to make sure that you are bringing in fresh air rather than setting the climate control on recirc.  The reason being that as you drive, you will be converting pounds of CO2 into a gas inside of the car.  Probably not something that is going to cause you problems as long as you are aware of it and take a few proper precautions.  

Just for the heck of it, I did some calculations relying on what I learned in chemistry class (that I took a hundred years ago  :rofl, you can figure that 10 pounds of dry ice (CO2) equates to 4,536 grams.  Each mole of CO2 weighs 44 grams.  So, that is 103 moles of gas.  Each mole of gas occupies 22.4 liters  (at standard temperature and pressure).  So, 10 pounds of dry ice will vent about 2,300 liters of CO2 gas.

1 cubic foot includes 28.3 liters (I looked that up).  So when the dry ice sublimates (if that is the right word), it will give off about 82 cubic feet of pure CO2.  But according to wikipedia, at a concentration of only 1% CO2, some people will feel drowsy.  So, if you mixed the 82 cubic feet of pure CO2 with air to get a 1% concentration, that would occupy 8000 cubic feet.  

So, keep fresh air coming in to your car as you drive and if you stop for an hour for lunch/dinner, open the car doors for perhaps a minute or two before resuming your driving.  (Or buy your meat at your destination?  )


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## Chrispee

I would have no problem driving 8 hours with a hard shell cooler packed with a big bag of regular ice.  I'd bet it will stay completely frozen, but if you're worried you could just stop and buy another bag of ice at the halfway point?


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## klpca

natasha5687 said:


> We are going on vacation next week and I was wondering about taking frozen food along.  We typically fly so we norally just buy food when we arrive.  Our drive will be about 8 hours.  I have some of those insulated bags but they only advertise to keep food hot or cold for up to 4 hours.  Is it even realistic to think that I can just take my frozen meats with me on this trip?  If I can what is the best method for storing them?



We camp a lot, thus we are dealing with keeping food cold for a week at a time. I would get one of the super cold coolers by Igloo (they are called MaxCold). Usually they are blue, but sometimes white. Costco had white ones for awhile earlier this year. First, solidly freeze all of the food that you can (it needs to have been frozen for 2+ days), put some ice in the bottom of the cooler, then the food, then cover the whole thing with more ice, close the lid and don't open it until you get to your destination. When loading the food in the cooler, I would put things like hamburger near the bottom, casseroles near the middle, and solids like steaks nearer the top - but still under a good layer of ice. I would be willing to bet that everything will still be frozen when you arrive.

In all of our years of camping using this method, I have never lost any food to spoilage, and have never had anyone get sick from food poisoning. (knock on wood). In the world of camping, 8 hours is nothing. Your food will be fine.


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## SueDonJ

We've done it Boston to Hilton Head, about 18 hours straight through, and had no problem.  Make sure everything is frozen solid (I like to do at least four days prior to packing the cooler) and like others have said, use a good quality hard-walled cooler and jam-pack it tightly with ice packs in any spaces.  Don't open it along the way, and put it underneath other items so that the sun coming in the car windows won't hit it.


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## pacodemountainside

If you have to go out and buy expensive  ice chest  and ice may be  cheaper to buy meat  at WalMart, large supermarket  near resort.

Just pack non-perishables including condiments which  are expensive to buy.

Also, generally cheaper to buy soda,  booze, bottled water,  etc.  at local discount store.


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## dougp26364

If your on,y driving 8 to 10 hours, forget the dry ice. IMHO it can be danfpgerous and is an unesessary risk. We drive out to CO, which is a 10 hour drive for us. A decent cooler, freezing the food ahead of time and ice or even those frozen blue ice packs work fine. This past trip we took 4 steaks and 4 premade gourmet hamburger patties in what amounted to a six pack style igloo cooler with the blue ice blocks in it. Everything was still frozen when we arrived after a 10 hour drive. 

We have. Mini van so our cooler is in the air conditioned car, not in a hot trunk. That probably makes more of a difference in the summer when outdoor temps can get into the 100's more so than in the spring/fall when temps tend to be milder.


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## BJRSanDiego

Has anyone used one of those 12 V. electrical coolers on trips?  The type I am referring to is one that has no moving parts but relies on thermal-electric cooling (Peltier-effect to be specific).


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## WinniWoman

Is there a reason you can't shop for the frozen and cold food items nearer to your destination?


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## dioxide45

GFS (Gordon Food Service) sells dry ice.


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## Passepartout

BJRSanDiego said:


> Has anyone used one of those 12 V. electrical coolers on trips?  The type I am referring to is one that has no moving parts but relies on thermal-electric cooling (Peltier-effect to be specific).



In a former life as a long haul trucker, I had a succession of those. Igloo, Coleman, others. I tried 'em all. Bottom line, they will keep the inside about 30 degrees below the ambient temp. That is to say if it's warmer than 80ish, your food will be cool, not cold. And about the best you can hope for is to keep stuff cool, not to cool warm foods. They just dont have the power to do that. My experience it that they need a kit to replace fans and thermoelectric units about yearly $40-$50. They draw at least 10 amps of power. A big truck has usually 4 BIG batteries, and without running the engine, a cooler would suck down the batteries over a weekend. In a car with one battery, you would be fortunate to be able to start the engine after a night of keeping a thermoelectric cooler running.

They really work best while the engine is running.

Jim


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## mdurette

I'm going to 2nd the Omaha Steak coolers.   I buy from them from time to time so we always have one around.    I have taken several 6 hour trips in 80 degree weather with that filled with frozen and refrigerated items, topped with ice.  Never an issue.  (an the cooler is in the back of a pick-up!) The frozen items are still frozen and the refrigerated items are still cool enough.   There is actually still a bunch of ice left!    Those coolers are great for stuff like this.   A bit bulky to deal with, but they work.


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## ronparise

My routine drive is only 4 hours, but Ive done 8-10.  I use the frozen stuff in the cooler to keep the rest of what Im bringing cold.   Ideally the meat will be thawed,but still cold and ready to cook,  when I unpack the cooler. 

Im not packing for a whole week, only the first day of so...There will be a trip to the local Costco,or Walmart,  to buy for the rest of the week.


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## natasha5687

mpumilia said:


> Is there a reason you can't shop for the frozen and cold food items nearer to your destination?



Many of the things that I would like to take are make ahead and freeze kinda things like chili, meat sauce, and lasagna.  When I purchase steak (which we eat often) I clean, season, and then freeze it so that it can be thawed and cooked immediately when ready.  I just find it easier and more cost effective to travel with my frozen stuff if I can. More time for vacation less time grocery shopping and cooking.


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## WinniWoman

natasha5687 said:


> Many of the things that I would like to take are make ahead and freeze kinda things like chili, meat sauce, and lasagna.  When I purchase steak (which we eat often) I clean, season, and then freeze it so that it can be thawed and cooked immediately when ready.  I just find it easier and more cost effective to travel with my frozen stuff if I can. More time for vacation less time grocery shopping and cooking.



Then, I think you can make this work with the right cooler and the dry ice for an 8 hour drive- keep the car AC on, park in the shade, etc. I am sure some of it will defrost, at least a bit, but you can stick it in the fridge/freezer right away when you get there and be good to go...


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## MuranoJo

As others have said, use a good hard-bodied cooler chest with ice and you'll be just fine.  Normally, the solid ice blocks last longer--or you could use plastic milk jugs filled with water and frozen.  For foods you'll use later in the week, make sure they're frozen solid.

We take enough food *for a week* on our rafting trips and have never had problems.  But we do invest in higher-quality coolers for those trips (i.e., Yeti, etc.).


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## DaveNV

Passepartout said:


> If you REALLY want to keep it frozen, use a good, solid cooler, pack it full, and put dry ice on top of the food. Using those bags will just amount to somewhat controlled thawing. Your food will be ready to cook when you reach your destination.
> 
> Jim




And if you want to take it a bit further, after you put the dry ice in the cooler, tape the lid shut with duct tape, especially along the horizontal gap edge where the lid sits into the base.  Makes it essentially air tight, and your food will stay frozen much longer.

Dave


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## Bruce W

On one of our trips to Key West, we bought shrimp and fish from a fishery on Stock Island. They froze all the items for us ( obviously ordered before). We transferred to a styrofoam box from Publix and then loaded it in an older dufflel. Since our travel time was ( by air) less than 4 hours, we checked the bag. Well, for the only time ever, we did not get all of our bags upon arrival, and of course, the "fish bag" was one of them. We had the bags brought to our house the next day, and did not expect anything other than a smelly bag. It was still frozen as solid as the day we picked it up at the fishery. Bottom line, it is likely you will be fine.


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## pedro47

BMWguynw said:


> And if you want to take it a bit further, after you put the dry ice in the cooler, tape the lid shut with duct tape, especially along the horizontal gap edge where the lid sits into the base.  Makes it essentially air tight, and your food will stay frozen much longer.
> 
> Dave



Now that is a good idea.


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## sfwilshire

We have two "9-day" Coleman coolers we got from the outlet store. We freeze gallon milk jugs and mix the frozen stuff with our refrigerated items in the cooler. The frozen stuff is at least partially frozen after a two day summer drive. 

The outlet store never has these coolers any more, so I'm not sure if they are still made, but they are similar to others described above. The walls are thicker, so they hold less than a cheaper cooler, but they work very well.

Sheila


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## dioxide45

BMWguynw said:


> And if you want to take it a bit further, after you put the dry ice in the cooler, tape the lid shut with duct tape, especially along the horizontal gap edge where the lid sits into the base.  Makes it essentially air tight, and your food will stay frozen much longer.
> 
> Dave



I don't think you want an airtight cooler when using dry ice. As the dry ice sublimates it expands and could cause the cooler to expand or explode. You want to try to fill in any empty spaces in the cooler with crumpled newspaper to reduce sublimation. I was reading recently about packing with dry ice as we were planning to drive with some frozen items to Florida and everything I read indicated to not try to make the container air tight.


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## Loggie

I have used one of the 12v coolers works great.  It also has a reverse button on it to keep food warm.


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## DaveNV

dioxide45 said:


> I don't think you want an airtight cooler when using dry ice. As the dry ice sublimates it expands and could cause the cooler to expand or explode. You want to try to fill in any empty spaces in the cooler with crumpled newspaper to reduce sublimation. I was reading recently about packing with dry ice as we were planning to drive with some frozen items to Florida and everything I read indicated to not try to make the container air tight.



Ok. I didn't know that.  Thanks for pointing that out.  When we did it, I didn't notice any issues with the plastic coolers we used, and the food stayed frozen for several days.  Maybe it wasn't as airtight as I thought? I know the dry ice lasted a long time.

Dave


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