Freezer wwyd

[mae0111]

On Friday night at around 10:15pm, a circuit tripped and shut off our chest freezer and 2nd refrigerator.  Both our in our unfinished, unheated basement.  It was about 75 degrees on Saturday, but the basement did not get above about 62 degrees.  No one opened the fridge or freezer until Sunday at around 11am, and that's when we discovered that the power was out.  So the power was out for about 36 hours.

The freezer is full of food.  Popsicles began to melt and bread began to thaw, but meat still appeared to be frozen solid. There was still a thick layer of ice on the inside walls of the freezer. 

Would you throw everything away?  I threw out popsicles, but Italian ices and push up popsicles will hopefully refreeze.  I"m tossing all frozen meals, since many have meat or cheese sauces.  But would you toss the meat that still appeared to be frozen?

What about the fridge?  I have milk, creamer, and yogurt in there.  Pitch it all, even though the fridge was never opened?

[madringal]

I would toss all the dairy in the fridge but I wouldn't throw out meat that is still frozen solid.

[sunbutter]

I wouldn’t toss meat that was still frozen.
Was the dairy sealed?
I personally would still eat that yogurt but my DH would throw it all out.

[mae0111]

Everything was sealed. I just did a stock-up trip to BJs. My kids drink Lactaid and it’s significantly cheaper at BJs, so I had 2 gallons of milk, tons of yogurt cups (we all eat at least one every day), shredded cheese, etc.

[campermom]

Jun 9, 2019 20:24:05 GMT -5 madringal said:

I would toss all the dairy in the fridge but I wouldn't throw out meat that is still frozen solid.

same here.

I’d also use it as an opportunity to clear out old stuff. Like I did 2 weeks ago when one of my kids left the freezer ajar and things thawed. We threw out half eaten bags of veggies, old bags of fruit etc.

But if meat hadn’t thawed I would not throw that out.

[k3am]

36 hours in a fridge that hadn’t been opened often and was relatively cool? I’d be saving just about everything. I’d give it all a taste before using and chuck it if it was questionable tasting/smelling, but that’s the extent of my worries about it. I wouldn’t preemptively chuck anything. My only exception would be that I probably wouldn’t serve it to guests.

[mustardseed2007]

I'd save almost everything also. The freezer is a really well insulated cold box. I understand throwing out partially thawed dairy but meat I would keep.