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AN EVERYDAY SITUATION · FOOD

The fridge stopped.
What food can you keep?

When the power goes out, the first useful food-safety move is free: leave the refrigerator and freezer closed and write down when the outage began.

Ready Before Dark journal · September 23, 2026 · 5-minute read

Imagine it is mid-afternoon and your kitchen suddenly goes quiet. You have milk, leftovers and a freezer with a few dinners. In this hypothetical situation, no one knows how long the power will be out. You do not need to inspect every shelf immediately.

Start the clock, then close the door.

Note the time the power stopped. Keep both appliance doors shut as much as possible. CDC and FoodSafety.gov say an unopened refrigerator keeps food safe for up to about four hours. A closed, full freezer holds its temperature for about 48 hours; a half-full one for about 24 hours. These are estimates for closed appliances, not guarantees for every item.

If you already have an appliance thermometer, use its reading when you assess the food. A refrigerator should be at or below 40°F (4°C) and a freezer at or below 0°F (-18°C) before an outage. Do not repeatedly open the door to check: that lets cold air escape.

At four hours, make the refrigerator decision.

FoodSafety.gov says to discard refrigerated perishables such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs and leftovers once the power has been off for four hours or more. Milk, soft cheese, cut fruit and cooked rice also need item-by-item attention; use its refrigerated food chart rather than assuming everything in the fridge has the same rule. If a thermometer shows a perishable was above 40°F (4°C) for two hours or more, discard it even if the outage was shorter. The shorter limit is one hour when the temperature is above 90°F (32°C).

Do not taste food to test it. Normal smell or appearance cannot prove it is safe. Cooking food after it has been held unsafely does not make the earlier storage decision disappear. If you cannot establish that a perishable stayed safely cold, take the cautious path and use the official chart.

Treat the freezer separately.

When power returns, check a freezer thermometer if you have one. According to FoodSafety.gov, frozen food can generally be refrozen or cooked if it still has ice crystals or is at 40°F (4°C) or below. If it thawed and spent more than two hours above 40°F, use the frozen food chart and discard perishables it marks unsafe. Do not treat “the freezer was full” or “it still feels cool” as a substitute for checking each package.

Floodwater adds a separate hazard. FoodSafety.gov advises throwing out food that may have contacted floodwater or stormwater; the closed-door timing rules do not override that instruction.

Make the next decision easier.

Keep a note with the outage start time and the food-safety chart link where your household can find it. Put a shelf-stable meal you already own on tonight's menu if you need to avoid opening the fridge. Then take the free Power Outage Readiness quiz and check the food-without-power guide for a simple planning list.