Prepare meals safely when your electricity or gas is unavailable. Start with food you can eat without heating, a safe drinking-water reserve, and a practical plan for your household. A portable stove is not automatically safe to use indoors and is not essential for every power cut.
Quick checklist: your first ten minutes
- Check whether cooking equipment, lighting, drinking water and the fridge or freezer are affected.
- Keep fridge and freezer doors closed as much as possible. Follow current Food Standards Agency advice on chilled and frozen food after an outage.
- Put together meals you can eat cold or ready-to-eat, with an appropriate manual can opener if needed.
- Account for infants, allergies, pets, disabilities, special diets and people who need support preparing food.
- Never bring a barbecue, petrol generator, camping stove or outdoor cooking heater indoors, into a tent, garage or any enclosed space. Carbon monoxide can be fatal.
Three ways to prepare food during an outage
1. No-cook meals — your safest starting point
Identify food that is safe to eat as supplied and needs little preparation: appropriate ready-to-eat tinned or packaged foods, breakfast items and other shelf-stable options you already use. Check the label for storage requirements and whether the food must be heated before eating. Include a safe way to open packages and enough clean water for drinking and hygiene.
2. Food that only needs hot water
Some foods need boiling water even though they are marketed as simple emergency meals. Check whether you will realistically have a safe, manufacturer-approved way to heat the water. Do not rely on your usual kettle if the electricity has failed. Additional water and fuel requirements belong in your plan.
3. Cooking with an approved alternative
Only use cooking appliances in locations and conditions explicitly permitted by their manufacturer, with appropriate ventilation, stable placement and fire precautions. Outdoor-only fuel-burning appliances stay outdoors regardless of weather. Never move a barbecue indoors for warmth or cooking; do not improvise with unsuitable fuels. If safe cooking is not possible, choose food that does not need cooking.
Will food in the fridge and freezer remain safe?
According to the Food Standards Agency, a closed fridge may remain cold for approximately up to four hours; a full freezer may keep food frozen for approximately up to 48 hours, or 24 hours if half full. These are estimates, not guarantees: starting temperature, door opening, room temperature and individual appliances matter. Follow the FSA’s current advice before deciding what is safe to keep or discard. Read the current FSA emergency-food guidance.
Water, washing up and hygiene
A cooking plan also needs safe drinking water for drinks, food preparation, handwashing and cleaning. If tap water is interrupted or under a supplier warning, follow that notice before using it for cooking. Do not assume boiling or portable filtration removes chemical contamination. The Water Outage Guide explains this distinction and includes a practical planning reference.
How to build a three-day food plan without overbuying
- List the actual people and meals you need to cover, including dietary needs and suitable infant supplies.
- Count the safe, familiar ready-to-eat meals already in the kitchen.
- Identify which foods depend on refrigeration or safe heating and plan an alternative.
- Check water, a working can opener, lighting, hygiene and waste arrangements.
- Buy only the remaining gaps and rotate your supplies as part of ordinary shopping.
Use the free Food Reserve Planner for a more detailed household meal estimate or Build My Plan for a single overall plan.
UK-wide reminders
Cooking, fire and carbon-monoxide precautions apply across the UK. Electricity fault-reporting arrangements depend on your network operator, so save its current contact number before an outage. For household guidance, see UK Government advice on power cuts.
Shopping advice
Start with ordinary groceries you can store safely and rotate, not an expensive specialist food bucket. If you are comparing specialist meals or equipment, check water requirements, cooking instructions, actual nutrition, maintenance and safe operating conditions. Compare supermarket and freeze-dried food.
Editorial review: 15 October 2026. General UK planning advice, not a food-safety assessment of individual products. Follow current FSA guidance, official incident notices and appliance instructions.