Food safety after a power cut

What official guidance says

Food Standards Agency guidance covers England, Northern Ireland and Wales. It says a power cut lasting less than four hours is unlikely to affect chilled or frozen food safety. If the fridge reaches 8°C or above, food that normally requires refrigeration should be discarded after four hours unless power returns within that time.^[1]

Food Standards Scotland gives the same broad advice for Scottish readers: food can remain in a fridge while it stays below 8°C and food normally requiring refrigeration should be eaten within four hours if it reaches 8°C or above.^[2]

Start with the fridge, not the cupboard

The first food to assess is food with a use-by date, products labelled “keep refrigerated” and cooked leftovers. This includes meat, poultry, fish and ready-to-eat chilled food such as sandwiches, salads and deli meats.^[1]

If you have a thermometer reading, use it rather than repeatedly opening the fridge. If you do not know the temperature or timing, take the cautious route and use the official guidance rather than assuming the food is safe.

What to keep, use first or throw away

Keep or use first

If the outage lasted under four hours and the doors stayed closed, the FSA says it is unlikely to affect chilled or frozen food safety. If the fridge remained under 8°C, chilled food can stay in the fridge. Cupboard food can normally wait because food stored at room temperature continues to be safe to eat.^[1]

Throw away when the official threshold is met

If the fridge reached 8°C or above, food that normally requires refrigeration should be eaten within four hours. If power is not restored within four hours, the FSA says the affected food should be discarded.^[1]

Pause when you do not know enough

Some post-outage decisions cannot be reduced to a single shortcut. Keep the freezer door closed, record what you know about the outage and use the source-checked refreezing guide before deciding.

Infant formula needs a separate decision

Do not use the ordinary chilled food rule to decide how to prepare infant formula. For England, Northern Ireland and Wales, the FSA says you need to be able to boil water to prepare infant formula safely after a power cut.^[1]

For powdered infant formula, follow the NHS preparation guidance and the product instructions. Use fresh tap water, boil it then leave it to cool for no more than 30 minutes so it stays at 70°C or above before adding powder. Put the hot water in the bottle before adding the powder. Follow the full NHS steps and cool the feed before giving it to your baby.^[3]

For England, Northern Ireland and Wales, if you cannot boil water, the FSA says ready-to-use infant formula could be another option. This is separate from preparing powder and is not a reason to improvise a method for powdered formula. NHS describes ready-to-feed liquid formula as a different form from powder.^{[1] [4]}

Who should be especially cautious?

The FSA identifies young children, pregnant women, older people and people with underlying health conditions as groups at greater risk from food poisoning. Take extra care with deli meats and smoked fish. Good hygiene, keeping raw and cooked food separate and cooking food until steaming hot remain important after an outage.^[1]

Practical conclusion

Begin with food that normally needs refrigeration. If the fridge stayed under 8°C, chilled food can remain there. If it reached 8°C or above, follow the FSA four-hour advice. This FSA advice applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The FAQ below has the FSA's full food use order once that safety decision is made.

For preparation steps, read How to protect food during a power cut. If you are checking a packaged item for a current safety alert, search RecallBite’s live recalls by product name, brand, lot code, batch code or available barcode.