When the electricity stops, keep the refrigerator and freezer closed and note the time. Those two actions protect the cold air you already have and give you a starting point for food decisions later. A short outage does not mean throwing everything away, but food that looks or smells normal is not automatically safe.
The most useful plan combines an appliance thermometer, a way to keep selected food cold and a few meals that do not depend on refrigeration or cooking. Make that plan before an outage rather than waiting until you are hungry and wondering whether dinner can stay on the counter.
Understand the four-, twenty-four- and forty-eight-hour estimates
The FDA's outage guidance says an unopened refrigerator keeps food cold for about four hours. A closed full freezer maintains its temperature for approximately forty-eight hours; a half-full freezer for about twenty-four hours. These estimates depend on keeping the doors shut. They are not permission to leave perishables out for those lengths of time.
Opening the door repeatedly to check whether things still feel cold uses up some of that protection. Decide what you need before opening it, and avoid making the refrigerator your source of drinking water throughout the outage. Keep a separate safe water supply available.
If electricity is likely to remain off beyond four hours, use a cooler with enough ice or frozen gel packs to maintain safe cold storage. Moving food to an unchilled bag simply changes its location. It does not restart the safety clock.
Keep that closed-refrigerator estimate separate from food left out: discard perishables held at room temperature for two hours or more, or one hour if the ambient temperature is above 90°F (32°C). FoodSafety.gov also gives item-specific rules for exposure above 40°F for more than two hours. Use the relevant food row and conditions; four hours is not a room-temperature allowance.
Prepare the cold storage while power is available
Keep the refrigerator at or below 40°F (4°C) and the freezer at or below 0°F (−18°C). An appliance thermometer lets you check the storage temperature rather than judging it by how the door or shelf feels. Know where the thermometer is before you need it.
Freeze water containers and gel packs in advance if you have space, leaving room in containers for water to expand. Group frozen food together. The FDA also suggests freezing refrigerated items you will not need immediately, such as suitable leftovers, so they can remain cold longer if power is lost.
Keep a cooler accessible rather than buried behind equipment. Think about who in your household can move it, where it can sit safely and how much food it can realistically hold. A small amount of food kept properly cold is more useful than an overloaded cooler that cannot maintain its temperature.
Use a meal plan that does not depend on opening the fridge
Set aside ordinary shelf-stable foods you actually eat: unopened canned beans or fish, nut or seed butter where suitable, crackers, shelf-stable beverages and whole fruit. Check opening instructions and allergies. A product that is shelf-stable while sealed may need refrigeration once opened, so choose pack sizes you can finish without creating difficult leftovers.
Keep a manual can opener with that supply if your cans need one. Plan simple combinations rather than a special emergency diet: beans with crackers and whole tomatoes, for example, or a suitable spread with bread and fruit. There is no need to buy every item at once. Rotate a few useful foods through normal meals so the supply remains familiar.
Do not bring an outdoor grill, camping stove or generator indoors to rescue a meal. The CDC's power-outage guidance warns about carbon monoxide from fuel-burning equipment. Follow emergency instructions and use only cooking arrangements appropriate to the location.
When power returns, assess food rather than the appliance alone
A refrigerator that is running again may cool down before you inspect it. That does not prove the food stayed safely cold throughout the outage. Use the outage duration, available temperature information and the type of food—not the fact that the light has come back on.
FoodSafety.gov's item-by-item charts distinguish foods that need discarding from those that can be kept. For example, refrigerated meat, poultry, fish, eggs and leftovers should be discarded after four hours without power or another safe cold source. The chart also gives temperature-exposure guidance for individual categories. Follow the relevant row rather than treating every item as identical.
Foods such as unopened shelf-stable products do not become refrigerator-dependent just because the power went out. Conversely, cooked rice, pasta and vegetables are not protected simply because they contain no meat. Check their storage requirements too. Use a written list if you need to work through several shelves.
Frozen food needs a separate decision
Some frozen food can be refrozen safely if it still contains ice crystals or is at 40°F (4°C) or below. Quality may change. FoodSafety.gov's freezer chart contains exceptions, including ice cream and frozen yogurt, so do not turn that general rule into a guarantee for every frozen item.
Handle packages so thawing raw meat cannot leak onto ready-to-eat food. If you are uncertain how warm a perishable item became or how long it stayed warm, do not taste it to settle the question. A small sample can still expose you to unsafe food.
Cooking or reheating is not a reliable way to repair food that has been stored unsafely. Use the storage decision first; only food that has been kept safely should proceed to the usual cooking or reheating step.
Keep flood exposure separate from loss of power
A power outage and contaminated floodwater create different problems. If flooding has occurred, follow the additional official guidance on safe water and food packaging. Food that has touched contaminated water cannot be judged using refrigerator temperature alone.
Avoid using outdoor cold as an improvised refrigerator. Weather changes, sunlight and animals can make outdoor storage unreliable. A controlled cooler and temperature checks give you a clearer basis for decisions than placing food on a porch and assuming it will stay cold.
Write a short household plan now
Put the essentials somewhere easy to find: where the cooler and thermometer are, which shelf-stable foods are available, and where you will record the outage time. Agree who will check local emergency information and whether a longer outage means moving to a safer location.
Afterwards, replace used ice packs or food and note what would make the next disruption easier. The aim is not to save every package at any cost. It is to keep useful food cold where possible, make clear decisions about the rest and feed the household without adding another problem to the outage.