Food and water after flood exposure

Begin with safe water

Do not use floodwater for drinking, cooking, brushing teeth, washing dishes, washing or preparing food, making ice, washing hands, or preparing infant formula.

Check the current notice from the water utility, health department, tribal authority, or other responsible local authority. Boil water, do not drink, and do not use notices require different actions. Boiling does not remove every chemical contaminant.

Until the applicable authority says the water can be used for the intended purpose, use an approved alternative such as commercially bottled water or water prepared exactly according to the current notice.

If the home uses a private well and floodwater reached or may have reached it, stop using the well and follow the private-well guide linked below. A county alert alone does not establish whether a particular well was contaminated.

Discard packages floodwater can enter

Discard food if floodwater or stormwater touched or may have touched:

• cardboard boxes, including milk, juice, and formula cartons;
• plastic wrap, paper, cloth, or other non-waterproof packaging;
• containers with screw caps, snap lids, twist caps, flip tops, crimped caps, or similar closures;
• home-canned food;
• open, bulging, leaking, punctured, deeply dented, or otherwise damaged cans or packages; or
• food with an unusual color, odor, or texture.

Discard bottled water in affected screw-cap containers as well. A closed lid does not establish that contaminated water stayed out.

Do not taste food to decide whether it is safe. Unsafe food may look and smell normal.

The narrow package exception

FDA says that undamaged, commercially prepared food in an all-metal can or a factory-sealed, heat-sterilized flexible food pouch, known in food-safety guidance as a retort pouch, may be saved using its complete cleaning and sanitizing procedure. Shelf-stable tuna and ready-meal pouches are common examples, but the package must actually be labeled as shelf-stable and must be undamaged. An ordinary plastic bag or refrigerated pouch is not the same thing.

Use that exception only when:

• the package is truly an undamaged all-metal can or qualifying shelf-stable pouch;
• safe water and the required supplies are available;
• the current FDA procedure can be followed from beginning to end; and
• the package can be relabeled with its contents and expiration date.

The procedure includes removing removable labels, cleaning away dirt, washing, rinsing with safe water, sanitizing by one of FDA's specified methods, air-drying, and relabeling. Use the FDA food-package instructions linked in Sources below rather than relying on a remembered bleach concentration. Bleach products vary, and bleach must never be mixed with ammonia or another cleaner.

When those conditions cannot be met, discard the package.

Separate flood exposure from a power outage

Food can have two different problems at once:

• floodwater may have contaminated the package; and
• loss of refrigeration may have allowed unsafe temperatures.

Passing the flood-package check does not establish that refrigerated or frozen food remained cold enough. Use the related power-outage food-safety guide for the separate time-and-temperature decision.

Food that touched floodwater is not made safe by freezing, cooking, smell, appearance, or a refrigerator thermometer.

Clean food-contact items only after the water source is established

Discard wooden cutting boards, baby-bottle nipples, and pacifiers that contacted floodwater. CDC states that sanitizing does not reliably remove flood contaminants from them.

Wash, rinse, and sanitize dishes, utensils, counters, refrigerator drawers, and other food-contact surfaces using the CDC procedure linked in Sources below and safe water. Keep contaminated items separate from already cleaned items.

Do not begin kitchen cleanup inside a building that has not passed the reentry checks for structural, electrical, gas, chemical, and water hazards.

Give infant feeding and medicine separate handling

For infant feeding, follow current FDA and local health guidance. Ready-to-feed formula that requires no added water is the simplest option when safe water is uncertain. Do not use a flood-exposed carton or ordinary screw-cap container.

Medicine and medically prescribed foods require their own instructions. Do not apply the all-metal-can exception or an ordinary food decision to medicine.

Document before disposal only when safe

If insurance or assistance documentation may be needed, take a few photographs of affected food and water supplies before disposal when that can be done without entering an unsafe area or delaying removal of a health hazard. Do not retain contaminated food solely for an adjuster.

Do not

• Do not drink, cook with, or wash food with floodwater.
• Do not assume tap water is safe because it looks clear.
• Do not assume boiling removes chemicals or makes every official water restriction equivalent.
• Do not keep food in flood-exposed screw-cap, snap-lid, cardboard, plastic, paper, or home-canned packaging.
• Do not taste questionable food.
• Do not improvise a bleach mixture from memory.
• Do not combine floodwater exposure and power-outage exposure into one decision.
• Do not enter an unsafe building to sort food.

Next action

Confirm the current drinking-water instruction for the address. Set aside an approved safe-water source, then discard flood-exposed food and bottled water except for undamaged all-metal cans or qualifying shelf-stable pouches that will be reconditioned using the complete current FDA procedure.