Refrigerated foods that can be held at temperatures above 40ºF until power returns include: hard cheeses, butter, margarine, fresh fruits, fruit juice, fresh unpeeled vegetables, salad dressing, ketchup, mustard, olives, pickles, jams, jellies and peanut butter.
As the USDA notes in Keeping Food Safe During an Emergency, your refrigerator will keep food safe for up to 4 hours during a power outage. Keep the door closed as much as possible. Discard refrigerated perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and leftovers after 4 hours without power.
According to the American Dairy Association your items should be discarded. The only possible exception is your cheddar cheese.
How long will milk/eggs last during a power outage? Milk, eggs, fish, meat and leftovers will last four hours in the refrigerator, as long as the door stays closed the entire time.
Salad dressing, ketchup, mustard, olives, pickles, jams, jellies and peanut butter. May be kept unrefrigerated until power returns.
Refrigerated foods that can be held at temperatures above 40ºF until power returns include: hard cheeses, butter, margarine, fresh fruits, fruit juice, fresh unpeeled vegetables, salad dressing, ketchup, mustard, olives, pickles, jams, jellies and peanut butter.
Good options include low-sodium canned beans, vegetables, fruit (packed in fruit juice), breakfast cereal, peanut butter, pouches of fully cooked whole grains, nuts, whole-wheat crackers, snack bars, and shelf-stable milk or plant milk (the kind sold in aseptic boxes in the grocery aisle).
Things like butter or margarine, fresh fruits that are uncut, fruit juices, peanut butter, ketchup and jelly are safe to eat after four hours without power. You can get a more detailed list of what refrigerated foods you should keep and what foods you should throw away by looking at the chart below.
Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature. The refrigerator will keep food cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will keep the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door remains closed.
To reduce Salmonella growth, eggs gathered from laying hens should be refrigerated as soon as possible. After eggs are refrigerated, they need to stay that way. A cold egg left out at room temperature can sweat, facilitating the movement of bacteria into the egg.
Milk has been named the item most likely to expire in the fridge, according to new research. A survey of 2,000 Americans has revealed that 46 percent say they've been caught by a sour scent in their bottle or carton.
Discard refrigerated perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, soft cheeses, milk, eggs, leftovers, and deli items after 4 hours without power or 2 hours after the temperature rises above 41 °F. At any time, discard spoiled, moldy food and anything that does not look or smell right.
The good news is that if you use an appropriate container for your ice cream and you store it correctly, it could last for up to eight hours, maybe more if you use dry ice or blocks of ice to help retain the temperature of the freezer at between -12°C (10°F) and -20°C (-4°F).
Throw out perishable foodin your refrigerator (meat, fish, cut fruits and vegetables, eggs, milk, and leftovers) after 4 hours without poweror a cold source. Throw out any food with an unusual odor, color, or texture. Check temperatures of food kept in coolers or your refrigerator with a cold source.
Chilling foods to proper temperatures is one of the best ways to slow the growth of these bacteria. To ensure that your refrigerator is doing its job, it's important to keep its temperature at 40 °F or below; the freezer should be at 0 °F.
TL;DR: Most need to be tossed. But there are a few exceptions. If food has remained above 40-degrees for more than two hours after thawing, the FDA suggests that you can still safely refreeze and eat hard cheeses, frozen fruit juice and fruit (with a few conditions), and frozen bread, rolls, and breakfast items.
Condiments such as ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles, relishes, piquant sauce, oil and vinegar-based salad dressings, Worcestershire sauce and steak sauces should be fine. The acid in them is a natural preservative. Jams, jellies, preserves and syrups are all right, too, because sugar is a preservative.
If you're serving the rice and place it in a bowl on your table at room temperature, then it must be refrigerated within two hours of cooking. If the rice sits out for two hours at room temperature or one hour if the temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit or above (like eating outdoors), then the rice should be tossed.
Since the compressor has to work harder to maintain the temperature inside the fridge, it puts extra load and pressure. This leads to increased wear and tear on the compressor. This is potentially detrimental to the overall lifespan of the refrigerator leading to frequent breakdowns.
Discard any perishable food (such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and leftovers) that has been above 40˚F for over two hours. Some homeowner's insurance policies or power companies cover the cost of food lost during a power outage.
As a rule of thumb, you should discard any perishable foods that have been stored above 40 degrees Fahrenheit for more than 2 hours. Hard cheeses, like cheddar or swiss, are safe to keep in brick form.
According to the USDA, butter is safe at room temperature. But if it's left out for several days at room temperature, it can turn rancid causing off flavors. The USDA does not recommend leaving it out more than one to two days. As such, Chad Galer, VP of Product Science and Food Safety at Dairy Management Inc.
Remember to have other non-perishable items on hand such as canned chili, soup and spaghetti, trail mix, instant pudding, mustard, catsup, vinaigrette-type salad dressing, cookies and perhaps candy. Plan ahead to keep any unused canned products in a well-chilled cooler.
Use Dry Ice
Alternatively, dry ice, which is frozen carbon dioxide, can be particularly useful for extended power outages. At an extremely low temperature of -78.5°C (-109.3°F), dry ice can keep things cold without electricity for longer periods.