How long does food last in the fridge without power?

How long each appliance keeps food safe

With the door kept closed	Food stays safe for
Refrigerator	About 4 hours
Full freezer	About 48 hours
Half-full freezer	About 24 hours

These times come from the USDA and assume nobody opens the door. Each opening lets cold air out, so decide what you need before you open it, and get it all in one go.

The rule that applies after that: throw out perishable food (meat, poultry, seafood, milk, eggs, leftovers) that has been above 40°F for 2 hours or more. Ready.gov gives the same advice.

Put thermometers in before the next outage

You can’t tell how warm a fridge got by touching the food. The USDA recommends an appliance thermometer in both compartments. The refrigerator should read 40°F or below and the freezer 0°F or below. When the power comes back, they tell you whether you have a problem or a full fridge of safe food.

Buying more time during the outage

• Keep both doors closed as much as you can.
• Group frozen food together in the freezer. Packed food stays cold longer than scattered items.
• Keep coolers and ice on hand for an outage that runs past 4 hours. Moving the milk, meat and leftovers into a cooler with ice keeps them cold after the fridge warms up.
• Freeze containers of water or ice packs ahead of time. They help the freezer hold its temperature, and they go into a cooler later.
• Dry ice works for longer outages. The USDA says 50 pounds of dry ice should keep an 18 cubic foot freezer that’s fully stocked cold for two days.

The other way to buy time is to keep the fridge running. A refrigerator cycles on and off, so over a day it draws much less than its running watts. The table on this page shows what a typical fridge and freezer draw and how long a 2 kWh power station runs each one. The refrigerator page has the full sources, and the runtime calculator adds the fridge to everything else you want to keep on.

If you use a gas generator to run the fridge, it has to stay outside, at least 20 feet from the house. The carbon monoxide guide explains why.

What to keep and what to throw out

Check each item on its own. This is a short version of the FoodSafety.gov chart for refrigerated food that has been above 40°F for more than 2 hours:

Food	Above 40°F for 2+ hours
Raw or cooked meat, poultry, fish and seafood	Throw out
Lunch meat, hot dogs, bacon, sausage	Throw out
Milk, cream, sour cream, yogurt, soy milk	Throw out
Fresh eggs and egg products	Throw out
Soft cheeses (brie, mozzarella, cottage, cream cheese, ricotta) and shredded cheese	Throw out
Cooked vegetables, tofu, bagged pre-cut greens	Throw out
Cut fresh fruit and cut fresh vegetables	Throw out
Cooked pasta, rice and potatoes, casseroles, soups and stews	Throw out
Hard cheeses (cheddar, Swiss, Parmesan, provolone) and processed cheese	Keep
Uncut fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh mushrooms and herbs	Keep
Butter and margarine	Keep
Opened fruit juice and opened canned fruit	Keep
Peanut butter	Keep
Bread, rolls, cakes, muffins, tortillas	Keep

The full chart on FoodSafety.gov covers condiments, sauces, casseroles, pies and more.

Frozen food

If frozen food still has ice crystals, or your freezer thermometer reads 40°F or below, it’s safe to refreeze or cook. Some foods lose texture or flavor when refrozen, but they’re safe. Thawed food that sat above 40°F for more than 2 hours mostly goes in the trash: meat, poultry, seafood, milk, eggs, soft cheese, ice cream and frozen meals. Some foods can still be refrozen after that, including hard cheese, bread and cakes without custard or cheese fillings, fruit and fruit juice (unless mold, a yeasty smell or sliminess develops), flour, nuts, and frozen waffles, pancakes and bagels. Frozen vegetables get a longer window, 6 hours above 40°F. The FoodSafety.gov chart lists each food.

Never taste food to check it

Food can look and smell normal and still make you sick. The USDA’s rule is to never taste food to decide whether it’s safe, and to throw it out when in doubt.

Medicine in the fridge

Ready.gov says that if the power was out for more than a day, you should throw out medicine that needs refrigeration unless the label says otherwise. Ask your doctor or pharmacist for a replacement. If someone in your house relies on refrigerated medicine such as insulin, ask the pharmacist now how long it stays usable at room temperature, before you need the answer.