Plan ahead (if you can)
- Place appliance thermometers in your refrigerator and freezer. Keep freezer 0°F or below and refrigerator at 40°F or below.
- Freeze containers of water and gel packs to help keep food cold if the power goes out.
- Group foods together in the freezer to help food stay colder longer.
- Freeze refrigerated items such as milk, and fresh meat and poultry that you do not need immediately.
- Store all open, nonperishable foods in air-tight containers along with other unopened nonperishable foods and all food service wares and utensils on higher shelves to avoid flood or storm water.
- If you think power will be out for an extended period of time, buy dry or block ice to keep the fridge or freezer cold. Be sure that the water from melting ice doesn’t contaminate foods.
During an outage
Do not prepare food during the power outage
Cold foods
Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed to maintain cold temperature.
If doors stay closed:
- A full freezer will hold its temperature for 48 hours
- A half-full freezer will hold its temperature for 24 hours
- A refrigerator will keep food safe for 4 hours
Hot foods
- Document temperature of the food and the time the power outage began.
- Throw away any foods in the process of being cooked that had not reached their appropriate final cooking temperature when the outage occurred.
- Cover hot food display cases with thermal blankets or lids to reduce temperature loss.
- Foods cooked just before the outage must be served immediately or kept in the covered hot food display
After an outage
The steps you take after a power outage will vary, depending on how long it was and how effectively you were able to keep your food out of the temperature danger zone.
Check the temperature inside of your refrigerator and freezer. If they are still at safe temperatures, your food should be fine.
When in doubt, throw it out!
Never taste food to determine its safety.
See the tables below to help you decide how to handle refrigerated potentially hazardous foods, such as meat, dairy, and eggs.
Refrigerated potentially hazardous foods
| 2 hour or less | 2-3 hours | 4+ hours | |
|---|---|---|---|
41° F or below | PHF can be sold | PHF can be sold | PHF can be sold |
42°-49° F | Cool PHF to 41° F or below within 1 hour | Cool PHF to 41° F or below within 1 hour | Discard |
50° F or above | Discard | Discard | Discard |
Hot held potentially hazardous foods
| 2 hour or less | 2+ hours | |
|---|---|---|
135° F or above | PHF can be sold | PHF can be sold |
134° F or below | May be sold if: 1) Reheated to 165°F and then held at 135°F or above; or 2) As refrigerated food, if rapidly cooled to 41°F or below within 2 hours following the outage | Discard |
After a flood
- Do not serve any food that may have touched flood or storm water.
- Discard food not in waterproof containers like screw-caps, snap lids, pull tops, and crimped tops that are not waterproof.
- Discard any damaged cans that have swelling, leakage, punctures, holes, fractures, extensive deep rusting, or crushing/denting severe enough to prevent normal stacking or opening.
- Remove all labels on undamaged all-metal cans and sanitize its surfaces with 1 tablespoon bleach in 1 gallon water.
- Sanitize all pots, pans, dishes and other food service wares and utensils that have been in contact with flood or storm water. Use a bleach solution.