Photos show Pittsburgh-area store's dumpsters filled with food after power outages. Could it have been saved?

Due to the recent storms and the power outages, some grocery stores in the Pittsburgh area were forced to throw out all their perishable food.

Photos show the dumpsters outside of the Cash Saver grocery store in Connellsville filled with perishable food after this weekend's storms. When this happens, it raises questions: Can't something else be done with this food? Can't it be donated?

Officials KDKA spoke with on Tuesday said there are a lot of factors at play in a situation like this. But above all, it's a health and safety issue.

"Never under any circumstances would we want to give a neighbor in need something that has been spoiled or is not consumable," said Jennifer Miller, CEO of the Westmoreland County Food Bank. 

Miller says that if you won't buy that perishable food in the grocery store after a power outage, food banks wouldn't want to distribute it. The Food and Drug Administration says stick to the "two-hour rule," which means if refrigerated items reach room temperature and stay at room temperature for more than two hours, they should not be consumed for fear of foodborne illness.

"Having experienced the power outages this past weekend, we were 32 hours without power in my area," Miller said. "We lost a lot of food personally; milk and eggs and things that we would not consume if it were at room temperature and could be unsafe by any means. So, we would not give that to our neighbors."

KDKA-TV spoke with the manager at the Cash Saver. He said this weekend's power outage was pretty rough on the store. But he also said the store received a new shipment of food.