Power was out for 16 hours. Is everything in the fridge bad?

16 hours? Yes. Fresh food is trash. Condiments are more than likely ok.

quote:

---

Likely still good as long as you kept the door closed.

---

Opened a single time at the 13 hour mark to see if stuff was still cold. Open for 3 seconds

Things that were frozen should be ok, as long as you kept the freezer door closed.

Keep everything closed, sealed up.

Deep freezers are made to hold cold for several days if NOT opened

Still need to keep your fridge closed too!

Don't throw out anything. Wait a day and you will be able to tell if something needs to be tossed.

Y'all are some dummies, yeah. Glad to see so many of you following the science.

LINK

Rule of thumb is 4 hours at room temperature. The refrigerator no power scenario rule of thumb is 4 hours.

Let's add those two together. So let's say your fridge stayed cool for...8 hours (even though only 4 hours is suggested). Add 4 hours on top of that and you're looking at 12 hours...and that's a BIG stretch. OP said 16 hours. 16 hours is 4X longer than the recommendation. 4X...

Well it's not as good as a brisket wrapped in a towel inside a Yeti.

I would not hesitate to keep everything that was in a fridge without power for 16 hours and only opened briefly once, of course if it failed the smell test it would be trash, otherwise no problem

Have you ever been around to open a fridge that has been sitting after a power outage?

Brether, I have had my whole freezer stay frozen after 12