Is the food in my fridge still safe? The power-outage rules
The short version
Per the CDC: if the doors stay closed, food stays safe up to 4 hours in a refrigerator, 48 hours in a full freezer and 24 hours in a half-full one. The USDA gives the same windows. Keep the doors closed as much as possible — every opening costs you time.
The 40°F rule
Refrigerated food belongs at 40 °F (4 °C) or below, and Ready.gov says to discard any perishable food — such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs or leftovers — that has been above 40 °F for two hours or more. The FDA gives perishable food held at room temperature the same 2 hours, or 1 hour when it is above 90 °F outside, before it must be discarded. If you kept an appliance thermometer in the freezer, check it when the power comes back on: if it reads 40 °F or below, the FDA says the food is safe and may be refrozen.
Refreezing
The CDC says you can safely refreeze or cook thawed frozen food that still contains ice crystals or is at 40 °F or below. Thawed food that has been above 40 °F for two hours or more falls under the discard rule above.
When in doubt, throw it out
Never taste food to decide: the CDC says never to taste food to know whether it is safe to eat, warns that unsafe food can make you sick even if it looks and smells normal, and says to throw out any food with an unusual smell, color or texture. The title of this section is the rule of thumb the CDC, Ready.gov and the Red Cross all give — the cost of being wrong is far higher than the groceries.
What to toss — and what actually keeps
Without a thermometer, go by the clock: the CDC says to throw out perishable food in your refrigerator — meat, fish, cut fruits and vegetables, eggs, milk and leftovers — after 4 hours without power or without a cold source like ice. What keeps: refrigerated food should be safe as long as the power was out for no more than four hours, per Ready.gov, and thawed frozen food that still contains ice crystals or is at 40 °F or below can be refrozen or cooked. For item-by-item answers, the CDC points to FoodSafety.gov's chart of the foods to throw out and the foods you can refreeze. When a specific item isn't covered, apply the rule above: when in doubt, throw it out.
Coolers, ice, and dry ice
If the outage will outrun the windows, the cooler takes over: once the power has been out for 4 hours, the CDC says to put refrigerated perishable food in a cooler, if you have one and ice, adding ice or a cold source like frozen gel packs to keep it at 40 °F or below. Keep the cooler in the coolest room and open it as rarely as the fridge. The FDA says 50 pounds of dry ice should keep a fully stocked 18-cubic-foot freezer cold for two days; Ready.gov says to wear dry, heavy gloves when handling dry ice and not to let it touch the food directly.
Set yourself up before the next storm
Keep appliance thermometers in the refrigerator and freezer, as the CDC and the FDA advise: in an outage they show the temperatures inside, which helps you decide whether the food is safe. Freeze containers of water now — the FDA says they help keep food cold in the freezer, refrigerator or a cooler, and that if your normal water supply is unavailable, the melting ice also supplies drinking water. Freeze leftovers, milk and fresh meat you won't need right away, and group food together in the freezer: both help food stay cold longer, per the FDA.
When power returns
Check the thermometers before you restock: the CDC says to see whether the refrigerator's is still at 40 °F or below, and the FDA says frozen food is safe and may be refrozen if the freezer's reads 40 °F or below. Without a freezer thermometer, check each package: the FDA says you can't rely on appearance or odor, and food that still contains ice crystals or is 40 °F or below is safe to refreeze or cook. Anything else follows the discard rules above. Wipe down shelves before restocking if anything leaked, and refreeze your water containers for the next event.
Eat in the right order
The Red Cross says to eat your fresh, perishable foods first, and the windows above set the rest of the order: the refrigerator's food runs out of time first, the freezer's later, and the pantry's not at all. Cook what's thawing while it's still safe — the FDA says it is important to cook meat, poultry, fish and eggs thoroughly, to a safe minimum internal temperature, and Ready.gov says charcoal grills and camp stoves are for outdoor use only — and move what you won't get to into the cooler while it's still cold.
The porch is not a refrigerator
Tempting in winter, but the USDA says not to place perishable food out in the snow: outside temperatures can vary, and food can be exposed to unsanitary conditions and animals. Ready.gov's power outage sheet says the same about storing food outside in cold weather. The safe winter version of the idea, from the same USDA advice: make ice in containers left outside to freeze, and place it around the food to help keep it cold — keeping the food where its temperature can be measured.
Plan around the restoration time
The 4-hour fridge window is why a realistic restoration estimate matters. Check your address on our live map — we show the utility's posted time when one is available and, when the data supports one, our independent estimate, which follows the outage's own recovery and leans on past outages there while that trend is thin — so you can decide about coolers and ice before the window closes.