I was once grossed out to learn that my grandparents always kept their opened jam (full sugar) in the cabinet, not the fridge. Still, no one died.

Sugar is a preservative so most jams would actually be perfectly fine. Same for vinegar-based things. Before refridgeration and canning, these were the techniques used to preserve foods for the winter. Not that anyone is going to come out and say "jams and vinegar will be 100% safe" - worries about liability.

I toss the creamy things (mayo, sour cream, ranch) and keep pretty much anything else.

As much as I love Good Questions on AT, I would not stake your life on the answers from the general public. Here is the CDC website and answer: If the power is out for longer than 2 hours, follow the guidelines below:

•For the Freezer section: A freezer that is half full will hold food safely for up to 24 hours. A full freezer will hold food safely for 48 hours. Do not open the freezer door if you can avoid it.

•For the Refrigerated section: Pack milk, other dairy products, meat, fish, eggs, gravy, and spoilable leftovers into a cooler surrounded by ice. Inexpensive Styrofoam coolers are fine for this purpose.

•Use a food thermometer to check the temperature of your food right before you cook or eat it. Throw away any food that has a temperature of more than 40 degrees Fahrenheit

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/poweroutage/needtoknow.asp

We never kept ketchup, mustard, jam/jelly, etc. in the fridge when I was growing up and we were in the South! Nothing ever went bad. I keep all these kinds of items in the fridge now because of habit and I do think it helps maintain flavor. I wouldn't throw them out after a power failure though.

Anything dairy/egg based should go.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets/keeping_food_Safe_during_an_emergency/index.asp

Our fridge was without power for 24 hours and we kept everything. I even sniffed the milk and heavy cream and tasted them and they were both fine, but they were fully chilled by the time we drank them. I'd say that mustards, ketchup, vinegary salad dressings, and jams would be fine. But mayo, cheese-based things, and anything without a lot of salt, vinegar, oil, or sugar to preserve it should probably be tossed.

It also depends on how cold your house got while the power was out. If you had a generator running to keep the house warm, things are more likely to be spoiled than if your house was without heat. Ours was heated for a day by a wood fire in our living room, then we abandoned ship to stay with relatives. So it had 12 hours of about 58 degrees with the fire (the kitchen was much colder than the living room), and 12 hours of around 40 degrees without heat (which is close to fridge temp anyway). Stands to reason that if the fridge is not getting any truly warm air in it, stuff will stay chilled longer than otherwise.

We never kept the ketchup or mustard in the fridge. My mom hates cold condiments. Sure, you'll get separation, but it's nothing some shaking won't fix. The same with jellies and jams. If it's cold in the house, wouldn't stuff be ok? I mean, for a day or two.

I just got my power back on here in CT after 4 days, and threw out all meat and everything dairy - Ranch dressing, mayo, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. It was sickening seeing all that money go into the trash, but I figured it would be better to toss it all than be cursing myself later for being cheap after getting food poisoning.

This is so helpful, thanks all. Anyone know guidelines on fruits/vegs in the freezer? I have loads of summer blueberries that I'd hate to lose, plus some cut-up strawberries and bananas, corn off the cob, parsley, whole tomatoes, and some batches of roasted tomato sauce. Oh, and what about baked goods--muffins, bread?

Our power was out for about 4 days, but apparently came back on last night. However, we won't be there until tomorrow night (it's our weekend house), so everything will likely be re-frozen by then and I won't be able to tell how much it all defrosted...

Anything with a high sugar or acid content is probably fine, and some of the stuff mentioned doesn't even need to be refrigerated to begin with.

If it doesn't look off or smell off, I would keep it. But I have noticed that some people are a lot more paranoid/stringent about this sort of thing than I am. I trust my gut when others adhere to rules and dates. If you're not comfortable keeping it, toss it.

Most of what you're talking about is going to grow mold if it goes bad, not bacteria, so it isn't likely to make you sick if there isn't even any visible growth.

Dairy and egg based stuff is another story, that should all go.

Oh, and also: a lot of people have mentioned "egg-based" foods, which I totally get ditching. But what about whole raw eggs? Can't they be kept at room temp anyway (at least for a few days)? I bought my first-ever carton of duck eggs right before the storm, would hate to throw them out... :(

I agree with most commentors in that you should use your common sense. Even my bottle of soy sauce says it should be refrigerated once opened. *rolls eyes* Dairy and raw eggs based foods should be tossed obviously (as an aside, american cheese slice are shelf stable so don't throw those out). Everything else I'd say is at your sole discretion. I would smell it out before eating but I'd think it'd be fine.

I would smell/look at everything. If there's nothing odd, keep it (even dairy)

Eggs can be kept outside the fridge UNTIL they are refridgerated. But once you put them in the fridge (or the store did), in the fridge they must stay. So I would throw those out after an outage.

I certainly would not throw out condiments or jelly. They'll be fine.

"Eggs can be kept outside the fridge UNTIL they are refridgerated. But once you put them in the fridge (or the store did), in the fridge they must stay."

Can anyone explain the reasoning behind this? I've never heard this before.

I'm going to weigh in here with a sort of different view. Here's what that that USDA link says about storage: "The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door remains closed." 80-some hours is A LOT longer then that. I'm conservative and would throw away everything not sufficiently cooled on ice, except like - dry spices (I happen to freeze mine for freshness). You can't see most microorganisms until their in full bloom. I know (as a consumer and scientist) about too many cases of food poisoning. Unrefrigerated produce has been behind some of the recent bacterial infection/death episodes. Many modern day bugs are more virulent and lethal than what previous generations were exposed to. So eating lettuce from your grandpop's garden is a different risk than eating lettuce out of a bag that came from a processing plant and before that some commercial farm where, oh it turns out there was run off from a nearby lot of corn-fattened, stinking cows. The more I learn, the fewer risks I take. Microorganisms thrive on sugar, and at our house we infrequently eat jam so I toss out old refrigerated (albeit organic) jams and jellies constantly. Refrigeration was recently introduced in our grandparents' generation, and they tend to uniformly have laxer ideas about "freshness". My mother cringes to date about all the mold scraped off various foods by her grandmother. Both b/c of those tendencies as well as the differences in food quality, I'm not sure I'd use their wisdom in the case of food safety decisions. Finally, I've had bouts of Serious food poisoning often enough in countries that don't have dependable refrigeration (eggs are the worst) to be crystal clear on this. There's no way I'm going to risk my family's health wagering a guess on how long into their shelf-life an unrefrigerated $3-4 carton of eggs is -- "Sell By" doesn't tell you. So yeah, as you can see, I feel rather strongly about this. And I had a refrigerator full of American cheese I think I'd toss that too. But of course, all do respect for differing opinions.

"Eggs can be kept outside the fridge UNTIL they are refridgerated. But once you put them in the fridge (or the store did), in the fridge they must stay. So I would throw those out after an outage."

I used to live up north (the Northwest Territories) and I encountered many people that did not keep their eggs in the fridge. It was really strange to me, and even though it was room temperature in the house the eggs retained their normal shelf life.

I think it'd be crazy to throw out all of those things -- they're shelf stable (preservatives, people!) and should be totally fine. A lot of people don't refrigerate those condiments even after opening, as other commenters have noted. I would still toss the mayo, personally, but it would be a shame to get rid of things like mustard, which are actually 100% shelf-stable. They only contain stable ingredients, remember. :)

@NellyP: the American cheese slice (Kraft's Single) are shelf stable, they don't keep them in the fridge at my grocery store and if you check the wrapping, it doesn't say anywhere on them that they should be kept refrigerated.

Ack, head spinning... I can already see it is going to be a trying weekend of fridge/freezer-clearing! Sitting on one shoulder, the don't-waste-food-and-money-don't-be-paranoid angel, and on the other the but-remember-that-time-you-had-salmonella? devil... Sigh.

As a park nature interpreter, one of my coworkers showed me a root cellar in the side of a mountain (base) where folks in the 1800s kept vegetables. We stuck our hand in there and it was very cold! These old methods, if safe, could be a good alternative to refrigeration. We might expect more storms and power outages in the future, so we should consider alternatives so long as they're safe.

In most parts of the world, eggs aren't refrigerated. I lived in Italy for a large part of my life and eggs were sold in the stores on shelves. We would get ours from a local farmer, always kept at room temperature. I don't quite understand the reasoning behind the comments that say once they've been refrigerated they should always be kept refrigerated. If it were me, I would probably keep and use the eggs. But, maybe I'm more of a risk-taker and I've never had any food borne illness.

Same for me with the eggs, I live in Korea and all the eggs are just kept stacked on top of each other in the middle of the grocery store. Of course once I get home, I always stick them in the fridge right away, because that's just how I grew up.

I'd never heard that refrigerated eggs couldn't be kept at room temperature again though- does anyone know the reason for this?

Without having referred to any scientific studies, I'd be thinking of the egg shell as a seal (like the pop top on a jar) if the seal is broken and the egg has been used to make Mayonnaise I'd assume that it's not safe to keep, if the egg is still whole I would assume it's ok. Throw out any that may be cracked, very thin or otherwise flawed and try to use any that pass the test fairly soon.
Condiments with lots of preservatives (like sugar filled jam) would probably be fine but check them to make sure there isn't any butter or crumbs from dirty knife offenders because they would spoil.
As a general rule, if you find a spot of mould you should assume the spores are all over the food.

Wasn't it this website (or maybe it was serious eats?) that had a post about how spoilage bacteria don't make you sick? Its e.coli and their friends that make you sick, but those are the ones that you can't detect by smell, sight, etc.

I would say, throw out the creamy stuff. If the rest looks/smells fine, its fine.

The government websites make assumptions on the refrigerator's insulation, and room temperature-- worse case assumptions.

Preparing for Hurricane Irene, I increased the mass in my freezer by putting a a case of water bottles. I threw nothing out save some dairy after a couple days as my fridge stayed at 45 (I keep a mechanical thermometer in there at all times) and my freezer was still frozen solid after 4 days without power. The Halloween storm caught us out of town so we had used out our fresh veg, dairy, eggs prior to leaving. Again, the house was around 50 degrees in the daytime and 47 at night (we we still without power when we came home for another 2 days).

What temp do you think a old fashioned dug in the ground root cellar is? 47-50 (not the silly 32-40 that some modern cellars say it 'must' be.) The freezer stayed solid for a 5 days again, some frozen Chinese dumplings clumped and those got tossed. My unit is only 5 years old, a newer unit may have even better insulation. 24 hours is just bs unless you're apt/house is an oven, often not the case unless it's summer or your heating is working when the power is out.

A freezer is for storing stuff, soup/stock in qt containers, meats, etc. Put some mass in there, then don't stand there like a lump when you want to take something out, get it and close it.

BTW, eggs, can be around for a month (even those in your store) with modest refrigeration - keep cool not necessarily cold. (the real problem is that most store bought eggs are only grade A and not that fresh to begin with, at my supermarket AA grade eggs (fresher) are at lease $1-2 LESS a dozen but not a 'name' brand or organic (still just grade A), and over looked by many. Put a egg into water to see if it floats or not. Floaters are old and probably spoiled (but not always).

mh330, I remember reading that as well. Although in the case of things like dairy-based products, possibly the spoilage bacteria makes them hard for the gut to digest, shich could give you a tummyache – but not actual sickness.

I sigh in dismay and feel like facepalming every time I hear people worrying about unrefrigerated eggs. Fer chrissakes, people! They're eggs. You do not need to keep them cold. They come in their own little sealed packaging. HOWEVER I've heard that in the US (where I am not), most commercial eggs are washed with very harsh detergents before going on supermarket shelves, which dissolves a coating on the outside and makes them far less shelf-stable. Anyone know more about this?

I find this site useful when my fridge decides to quit for a couple of days:

http://www.stilltasty.com/searchitems/search_page