Upright freezer door was left open!

Jodi
by Jodi
Help! Husband was putting some bread in the freezer and didn't lock it. I went in there about 13 to 15 hours later and the door was cracked open about 3 or 4 inches. This is not a self defrosting freezer! There was ice on the top shelf and a little on the rest of the shelves. This freezer is filled to the max. I think a package of sausages might have fell against the door and kept it from closing. Husband swears he locked the freezer but when I closed it and out the key in I had to turn it to lock so he didn't.
Bottom line, I didn't check to see what state of thaw anything was in just shut and locked it and walked away. I was so angry I didn't even go near the freezer. I was just reading that if food had ice crystals still it could be refroze, if not cook it now. Too late because it all refroze by now. What do I do? I'm not feeling good about tossing 15 CF of mostly meat.
What is the worst that could happen if any meat had thawed 100% and then refroze and then was eaten? Is it just taste or heath?
Any thanks for any answers. Please don't tell me any horror stories, just facts :)
  2 answers
  • Generally I deal with power outages & how long items will remain at safe temps but based on what you wrote you might be ok minus maybe items located in the door itself. It really is to hard to know as you did no checking - http://blog.sls-construction.com/2012/safety-sunday-disaster-toss-or-keep-food Ice crystals has nothing to do with freeze/thaw but the temp you keep it and the length of time it was in there
    • Jodi Jodi on Sep 23, 2014
      @SLS Construction & Building Solutions LLC Items in the door were bread so they are fine. I'm pretty sure all meats still had ice crystals on them when I first saw the door open and hurried to close it. I used a package of ground chuck this morning and partially cooked it in the micro before finishing it on stove top. It smelled normal and looked normal so I tasted it and it tasted fine. I hadn't seasoned it yet. I'm making pork ribs tonight. I suppose I just have to smell and taste everything but I think we will be okay. I know for sure the top shelf was full of ice when I first saw it. That's the shelf you could make snow cones with :) The rest of the shelves had ice but not thick like the top which is normal. I do know that freezer was hot on the outside the whole day but surely from running so hard. I just can't see tossing it all and I have a $1000 deductible on insurance so it would be a total loss. Lesson learned! Husband isn't allowed near the freezer anymore. I keep his ice cream in the side by side freezer anyway!
  • If the meat still had ice crystals on it then you are definitely fine as that would not be there if it defrosted & went above 40 In order to help minimize ice crystals - you may consider running the freezer a little warmer (say around zero) and using a vacu-seal system
    • Jodi Jodi on Sep 23, 2014
      @SLS Construction & Building Solutions LLC Thanks! I just bought a food saver with all the attachments a while back. I need to start using it more often!