Start with the decision, not the shopping list
When power stops, a household may start asking the same question in several rooms: what should we do with the food? A note prepared before the outage can give that conversation one place to begin. It does not replace food-safety guidance. It helps you keep the right guidance beside what you actually know.
Choose a location for the note that the household can find without unlocking your phone. Add spaces for the outage start time, the appliance and the next action. Leave unknowns blank or mark them as estimates; a tidy sheet is less useful if it quietly turns a guess into a fact.
Keep the clock and thermometer separate
FoodSafety.gov says a closed refrigerator can keep food safe for up to four hours during an outage and advises discarding refrigerated perishables after four hours without power. Its chart also gives item-specific decisions for exposure to 40°F (4°C) or above for more than two hours. Those are different conditions, not interchangeable clocks.
Keep doors closed as much as possible. Never taste food to decide whether it is safe. The chart distinguishes foods, so do not turn one row into a rule for every package. For frozen food, use the agency’s separate freezer guidance and its exceptions.
Source: FoodSafety.gov power-outage chart.
Write one next check
Record where the official chart is and who will consult it. Note any thermometer reading available using the device’s instructions, without repeated door-opening just to look around. Add a reassessment reminder; a reminder does not certify that food remains safe.
If you use household-planning software, keep this decision note tied to the appliance and the real event. A general pantry inventory cannot tell you the temperature history of a particular food. Temperature-sensitive medicine needs its own care-professional or supplier guidance, not a food chart.
Finish with an agreement
Ask the household who will keep the record and share the next action. Make sure the note and official guidance can be found by that person. You are finished when the process is clear—not when the sheet has every field filled in.
PrepperGo is a place to explore household planning alongside your own notes. Keep official instructions and current local guidance in charge of safety decisions.
Sources and further reading
Sources checked October 3, 2026 (UTC). This is our review date, not each source’s publication date.