What happens to the food in the fridge during a power cut?

A refrigerator and freezer whose door is never opened hold their cold for a while; what decides it is the length of the cut and how many times the door was opened. The decision comes from the measured temperature, not from how a product looks or smells. This piece does not give a number of hours after which something is thrown away, because that time changes with the model of the appliance, how full it is and the temperature of the room, and it cannot be stated by guessing.

Why does not opening the door matter so much?

When the power goes, the appliance stops cooling but the cold air and the chilled mass inside stay in place for a while. As long as the door stays shut, the inside touches the outside only through the insulation and warming moves slowly.

Every time the door is opened, the cold air inside flows out and air at room temperature takes its place. That exchange happens in a single movement and cannot be taken back; there is nothing to cool that air until the appliance runs again.

So the most useful thing to do during a cut is not to look at what is inside. If you know what you are going to take, the door is opened once, what is needed is taken, and it is closed straight away.

Why does a full freezer last longer?

The real source of cold in a freezer is not the air but the frozen mass itself. Frozen food and ice draw heat from around them as they begin to thaw; this delays the rise of the temperature inside the cabinet.

In an empty freezer that mass is not there. The air inside warms fast, because there is nothing to absorb the heat. The same model behaves differently full and empty.

So if there is a lasting gap in the freezer, filling it with closed containers of water helps. Frozen water does the same job at the moment of a cut and costs nothing in normal times.

What decides: the smell or the temperature?

The temperature decides. TÜBER, Türkiye's national dietary guideline, defines storage temperatures for foods one by one: 0-4 °C for red meat, poultry and fresh fish, 0-2 °C for ground meat, 4-6 °C for milk and dairy products, -18 °C and lower for frozen products. These are not guesses but measurable thresholds.

Smell and appearance do not measure those thresholds. A product may have gone outside the safe range and show no change at all; the reverse is possible too. A decision made with the senses does not take the place of a measurement.

For that reason, keeping a thermometer in the refrigerator and one in the freezer gives you the only real information you have during a cut. When the cut ends, the thing to look at is not the contents but that thermometer.

Can a thawed product be frozen again?

The guideline's wording on this is clear: foods that have been thawed once should not be frozen again. Refreezing a product that thawed during the cut as soon as the appliance runs goes against that rule.

Products that still have ice crystals on the surface and have stayed at freezer temperature are in a different situation. Here too the criterion is again the temperature, not how the product feels in your hand.

The guideline also defines how thawing is done: frozen foods are thawed in their original packaging and in the refrigerator, not left at room temperature. The same principle holds for products that will be cooked after a cut.

What can you do today?

Put a thermometer in the refrigerator and one in the freezer. This single step sets up the difference between guessing and measuring at the moment of a cut, and it also shows what temperature the appliance really runs at when there is no cut.

Fill the gaps in the freezer with closed bottles of water. When you hear about a cut, keep the door shut and take whatever you need from inside in one go. If the cut drags on and the measured temperature has gone outside the safe range, the decision is not made by tasting; a doubtful product is not tried.