The Best Tips for Power Outage Food Safety

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When it comes to disaster emergencies, one that we should all be prepared for is a power outage. They can be planned or unplanned, but either way they will disrupt your daily life. And one thing that will be top of mind is power outage food safety.

So, let’s talk about it. In this post I’ll share how you can prepare ahead of time, tips to keep food safe without power and tips for what to do with your food after the power comes back on. I’ll also link to a few of my favorite resources to help you out.

How to prepare in advance for food safety during power outages

Just like everything else emergency preparedness, there are plenty of things you can do before the threat of power going out is a concern. Here are some simple things to start thinking about and take action on:

Purchase an appliance thermometer. I really love this one and keep it on the side of my refrigerator.
Purchase a food thermometer. You can buy an inexpensive one like this on Amazon.
Look up where you can buy dry ice or blocks of ice near you.
If you already have a cooler, make sure it’s in a spot you can easily get to. If you don’t have one, consider buying one. You don’t need anything fancy, this cooler from Target would do the trick.
Discuss all of this as part of your family emergency plan. Make sure everyone knows what to do/what not to do. To see what else should be inlcuded in your family emergency plan, check out this post.
Involve your kids in the preparation by showing them how the thermometers work, show them where they could find food to eat during a power outage, help them understand why they shouldn’t open the fridge/freezer.

Talking about all of this before a power outage occurs will be a huge benefit to everyone in your house. And it will take one thing off your mental load at an otherwise stressful time.

Tips for keeping food safe without power

You know what’s not cool? Doing a huge CostCo haul just hours before a storm rolls through and knocks down power lines for who knows how long. Or maybe you live in a city where planned power outages happen on occasion to help the local power grid out. Either way, you don’t want to have to throw away all that food! Ugh, not cool.

These are the top tips from experts on how to tackle power outage food safety and do your best to keep things from spoiling.

Keep the doors to the refrigerator and freezer closed! I actually tape mine shut with a big X over the handles (see below for proof).
Monitor the inside temperature of your fridge/freezer with an appliance thermometer. Freezer temp should be at or below 0 degrees F and refrigerator temp should be at or below 40 degrees F.
Freeze containers of water and gel packs tand stash them next to food or keep them in a cooler.
Have a cooler on hand already full of frozen containers in case you need to move food from a warming fridge.
Use dry ice or block ice to keep fridge/freezer food cold during long outages. 50lbs of dry ice will keep an 18 cubic feet, fully stocked freezer cold for 2 days.
Put a case or two of bottled water (or even canned goods) in empty spaces in your fridge. This will help keep things cold longer - more mass = more heat required to raise the ambient temperature.
If it's a planned power outage, put food you know you will be consuming during the outage in a prepared cooler so you don't have to open your fridge/freezer.
Cook meats that are at risk of going bad on an outdoor grill.
Group foods together in the freezer. Again, the mass will help things stay cold longer. Consider it a science experiment!

How long is food safe during a power outage?

Here are some key pieces of information everyone should be aware of:

Food Safety Tips for AFTER a power outage

Trust me, this is not the thing you want to take your chances on. Make sure you’re aware of when it’s time to make peace with the idea of tossing out food.

Do NOT taste the food after a prolonged power outage. If you’re in doubt, toss it. Perishable food not kept at safe temperatures can cause severe illness. This is not just your mild upset tummy, anyone who has experienced food poisoning will agree.
Discard perishables (sad, I know) after 4 hours without power or a VERY cold source. This includes: meat, fish, cut fruits and veggies, eggs, milk and leftovers.
Toss any food that has an unusual color, odor or texture (but also realize this is not your only litmus test – some foods that are actually spoiled won’t experience any of these).
Check the food temperature. If it’s above 40 degrees F, toss it.
Check your appliance thermometer to see if it’s at or below 40 degrees F. If you don’t have one of these thermometers, see #4.
Generally speaking, if it has ice crystals it’s still good.

Let me repeat…do not take your chances. I know it stinks to throw out all that food, but it really is the safest thing to do to avoid illness.

Safety Tips when using dry ice for keeping food safe during power outages

Maybe you’ve used dry ice before, maybe not. But since I mentioned it as an option for helping to keep food cold, let’s review some important tips:

Don’t touch dry ice with your bare hands.
Don’t taste or put dry ice in your mouth.
Make sure you have good ventilation when transporting dry ice and don’t inhale the vapors.
Don’t put dry ice directly on food or glass shelves.
Don’t use it in an operating freezer.

Got it? Good. Let’s just be smart with the dry ice.

Additonal resources for power outage food safety

Hopefully, you’re feeling more confident about how to keep your food safe during power outages. Here are a couple other good resources for finding information about specific foods and what temperatures they’re safe at/how long they’ll stay good: