After storm-related power outages criss-crossed Hawaiʻi after Hurricane Lala, HPR spoke with veteran Hawaiʻi Health Department officials to learn what’s safe to eat during an outage and to get specific advice on how to prepare for a storm.
Peter Oshiro is the manager of the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health’s Food Safety Branch and Environmental Health Program. He has decades of experience keeping food safe, and he shared some of his best practices with HPR.
Interview Highlights
On fridges vs. freezers during a power outage
PETER OSHIRO: The first thing is to go out and get a thermometer before the next storm so you know exactly what the temperature in your refrigerator is. So if you don't have one, again, the rule of thumb is if your power has been out four to six hours, your refrigeration is not holding temperature already at that point and things are in there are warming up, that's for sure. So you know, things in the fridge won't last long with power outage, four to six hours max. … A freezer, on the other hand, can last up to two days with food still in there. And the way to tell without a thermometer is if there's still ice crystals on the food, or if it's still a little semi-solid.
On what to throw out and what can be kept
OSHIRO: Typically anything in your fridge, if it's any kind of raw or cooked meats, poultry, fish or seafood, milk products, yogurts, soft cheeses, those things all should be thrown out. Those are very perishable. That includes things like cooked pastas, your leftover plate lunches, any kind of stews, soups, or cream-filled pastries, those all are very perishable and need to throw out. … Any fresh fruits and vegetables don't have to be refrigerated. A lot of people like them in their fridge, but if you have dried fruits, if you have open jars of peanut butter, jelly, ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, condiments, those are all OK, actually. They do not have to be kept under hard refrigeration. And if you have any kind of juices or sodas, of course, those don't need to be refrigerated.
On canned foods, ice, and other food preservation tips
OSHIRO: The idea is to have a lot of canned and dried foods around that you can eat, that you can make without power. So those are the only tips we can offer for preparing for the storm as far as food supplies. ...
Keep in mind that when you put food on ice, you really should have it sealed well and it should be actually buried in the ice, at least covered. If you just put food on top of ice, typically it won't get cold enough. So it's a good idea to have enough ice in the chest to at least have a thin layer of ice covering all your food products in there. ...
Just be very conscious of very young children and your kūpuna or anybody that's immunocompromised, because you might think it's safe to eat, and the food might affect a healthy person with just a little diarrhea, or maybe heaven forbid, vomiting. But if that same organism gets into your child, or an older individual, or kūpuna, or immunocompromised people, they can actually end up in the hospital. So don't take the chance.
More information from the Hawaiʻi State Health Department on how to prepare for hurricanes can be found here.
This story aired on The Conversation on Aug. 19, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Jinwook Lee adapted this story for the web.
