USDA-based · How this page was made · Last reviewed August 31, 2026 · Sources ↓
After the power comes back: what to keep, what to discard
Keep the doors closed. A closed refrigerator holds a safe temperature for about 4 hours. A full freezer holds for about 48 hours; a half-full freezer for about 24 hours. When the power returns, do not taste anything to decide. If perishable food in the fridge (meat, poultry, seafood, milk, eggs, leftovers) sat above 40°F for 2 hours or more, or the power was out 4 hours or more with no ice or other cold source, discard it. 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.
Federal guidance is time-and-temperature, not taste. Below is how FDA and CDC word the same decision, including where they do not match.
While the power is out
Keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed. FDA and CDC both state that a closed refrigerator holds a safe cold temperature for about 4 hours; a full freezer for about 48 hours; a half-full freezer for about 24 hours.
FDA prep guidance: fifty pounds of dry ice should keep an 18-cubic-foot, fully stocked freezer cold for about two days. Have coolers and ice ready if the outage will run longer than four hours.
When the power returns — the stricter rule
CDC: never taste food to know if it is safe. When in doubt, throw it out.
FDA’s shorter key-tips page and its longer outages-and-floods page do not use the same fridge wording. We take the stricter union and do not treat “45°F still fine” as the answer on this site:
- FDA key tips: “Discard any perishable food (such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs or leftovers) that has been above 40° F for two hours or more.”
- FDA longer page: discard perishable food (meat, poultry, seafood, milk, eggs, or leftovers) that has been at refrigerator temperatures above 40°F for 4 hours or more; it also states that perishable foods at 45°F or below “should be safe” but should be cooked and eaten soon.
Stricter union for this guide: if perishable fridge food was above 40°F for 2 hours or more, or the power was out 4 hours or more with no ice or other cold source, discard it. We do not publish a 45°F keep path as The answer.
CDC aligns on the outage clock: throw out perishable food in the refrigerator after 4 hours without power or without a cold source like ice.
Frozen food
If a freezer thermometer reads 40°F or below when power returns, the food is safe and may be refrozen. Without a thermometer, check packages: if food still contains ice crystals or is 40°F or below, it is safe to refreeze or cook. Appearance and odor are not reliable.
FoodSafety.gov per-food chart
FoodSafety.gov publishes a food safety during a power outage chart. We could not open that chart from this environment (HTTP 403). Its per-food discard / refreeze table is UNKNOWN here — we link the page only and do not copy a table we could not verify.
If the outage came with flooding
Floodwater and stormwater are a separate discard problem. See flood food safety.
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