USDA-based · Sean Bernath · How this page was made · Last reviewed September 14, 2026 · Sources ↓
Power is back: which StillGood? pages to open first
Start with the keep-or-discard rules — not your nose. A closed refrigerator holds safe cold for about 4 hours; a full freezer about 48 hours (half-full about 24 hours). When power returns, do not taste food to decide. If perishable fridge food (meat, poultry, seafood, milk, eggs, leftovers) sat above 40°F for 2 hours or more, or the outage ran 4 hours or more without ice or another cold source, discard it. Then use the linked guides and category pages below — they repeat the same federal windows; they do not invent new ones.
This hub does not add new storage times. It points you to the federal keep-or-discard rules already published on StillGood?, then to the food categories that fail first when the fridge warms up.
1. Keep-or-discard (read this first)
Open After the power comes back: what to keep, what to discard. That page is the stricter union of FDA and CDC wording we publish on this site: time and temperature, not taste. Frozen food that still has ice crystals, or that reads 40°F or below, may be refrozen or cooked — you cannot tell by look or smell alone.
2. Confirm the fridge is actually cold again
Use an appliance thermometer. Federal guidance: refrigerator at 40°F or below, freezer at 0°F or below. See what temperature your fridge should be and why 40°F and 140°F matter.
3. Leftovers and cooked food
Cooked leftovers that stayed safely cold still follow the usual 3–4 day refrigerator window and 165°F reheat rule — leftovers & reheat. Food that sat in the danger zone too long is a discard, not a “reheat thoroughly” fix.
4. If there was floodwater, not only an outage
Flood-contaminated food is a different problem from a warm fridge. Follow flood food safety before you try to salvage cans.
5. Categories that fail first when the fridge warms
These category intros link the same cold-chart logic; open individual foods only after the keep-or-discard step above:
- Meat & poultry — raw poultry and ground meat are short windows even when the fridge never failed.
- Seafood — among the shortest refrigerator times in the catalog.
- Dairy & eggs — milk, eggs, and soft dairy are perishable fridge foods on outage discard lists.
- Leftovers & cooked food — the 2-hour / 3–4 day pattern.
What this hub will not do
It will not invent a fridge or freezer number that is not already sourced on a linked page. It will not tell you food is “probably fine” after a warm outage. When federal guidance says discard it, discard it.
Sources
- FDA: Power Outages — Key Tips for Consumers About Food Safety — FDA, 2026
- FDA: Food and Water Safety During Power Outages and Floods — FDA, 2026
- CDC: Keep Food Safe After a Disaster or Emergency — CDC, 2025
- FoodSafety.gov: Food Safety During a Power Outage (chart) — FoodSafety.gov, UNKNOWN
- FDA: Refrigerator Thermometers — Cold Facts about Food Safety — FDA, 2026
- USDA FSIS: Leftovers and Food Safety — USDA FSIS, 2026
- USDA FSIS: "Danger Zone" (40°F–140°F) — USDA FSIS, 2026