How to Save Your Refrigerated Food When the Power Goes Out

This story is part of Home TipsCNET’s collection of practical advice for getting the most out of your home, inside and out.

As extreme weather events such as hurricanes and heat waves continue to impact the US, it’s a good idea to prepare for the possibility of one Power failure in your home – and learn how to store all the groceries in your fridge and freezer when the lights are out for a while.

Losing a fridge full of groceries is costly, inconvenient, and potentially dangerous when you can’t get to a store in the middle of a storm. But there are ways to get ready in time so you can salvage all or most of your perishables. Here’s what to do.

(For more disaster preparedness tips, see our guide to preparing for hurricanes, wildfires, storms, and other natural disasters and 11 things you need to do to prepare for a power outage).

Continue reading: Best Fridge for 2022

Prepare to store your groceries before a power outage hits

Before you face a power outage, the best thing you can do is prepare in case you need to save your groceries. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends having the following items on hand:

• Device thermometer for both your fridge and freezer so you can monitor if their temperatures are rising and you need to start taking out food (the fridge shouldn’t go above 40 degrees Fahrenheit and the freezer shouldn’t go above 0 degrees Fahrenheit.
• A cooler and frozen gel packsin case you need to take food out of the fridge to keep it cold.
• dry ice or block ice to keep food cold in the fridge when you think the power will be out for a long time.

Continue reading: Best coolers for 2022

What to do with the food when the power goes out for the first time?

If there is a power outage, keep your fridge and freezer doors closed – don’t open them unless you absolutely have to, and even then try to do so quickly to avoid letting the cold air out. If the doors are left closed, your food can last up to four hours in a refrigerator, 48 hours in a full freezer, and 24 hours in a half-full freezer, according to the CDC.

Once you’ve passed the four hour mark (or if you see the temperature in the fridge has risen above 40 degrees F) and the power is still off, it’s time to get groceries out of the fridge. If any perishable food has been left in the fridge after this point, you must throw it all away.

The exception here would be if you have dry ice. You can put the dry ice on the top shelf of your freezer and the bottom shelf of your fridge and it will keep your perishables cold. You need about 3 pounds of dry ice per cubic foot of freezer space, which should keep food cold for at least two days. Just make sure you know how to safely handle dry ice before using it.

Separate your groceries into two groups

First, you’ll make two stacks: foods that absolutely must be kept cold, and foods that you can safely leave on the counter until the power is turned back on.

Food that does not need to be refrigerated

The following foods are safe to store outside of the refrigerator:

• butter (for 1-2 days)
• peanut butter
• Most cooking oils, with the exception of nut oils
• Herbs
• potatoes
• Most fruits and vegetables
• bread
• Coffee
• Treasure
• Ketchup, mustard and hot sauce

Food that needs to be kept cold

The following foods must be kept at 40 degrees F or lower to prevent bacterial growth and spoilage:

• Dairy products (cheese, milk, whipped cream, sour cream)
• eggs
• Meat, poultry and fish (cooked or uncooked)
• Cut fruits and vegetables
• leftovers

How to keep perishable food cold without a refrigerator

Once you have your stack of perishables, it’s time to get out your cooler and ice packs. Place a layer of frozen food on the bottom. Then put a layer of food from the fridge on top of this layer. Finish with another layer of frozen food. If you don’t have ice or ice packs, go to the store and buy some if it’s safe to do so.

Put ice or ice packs around the food in the cooler – don’t just throw everything up or down. Spreading the ice keeps the food at a more even temperature. Move your fridge thermometer into the cooler to keep an eye on the temperature.

If you don’t have a cooler, you can use your freezer instead – it’s insulated and will keep your food cold as long as you keep the door closed and a fresh supply of ice in it. To prevent melting ice from turning your freezer into a pond, place ice in bowls and place them around food.

You should never taste food to see if it’s gone bad — if in doubt, throw it out, advises the CDC. Throw away any food with unusual smells, colors, or textures immediately. Regarding frozen foods, you can safely refreeze or cook thawed frozen foods that are at 40 degrees F or below, or that still have ice crystals.

For more tips on preparing for natural disasters, click here how to pack an emergency bagand how to recover important documents after a natural disaster.