freezer door is cracked for nearly 2 days, temp is 54F when noticed.

You refreezing everything? Using or Tossing certain things?


*Yes, I have a freezer alarm....I'm not sure why it didn't go off. More than likely it did, but if it happened at night maybe it eventually times out? *sigh*

If it's steaks and backstrap and it's still cold then I'm re-freezing. If it's ground burger then I'll probably toss it or cook a big ole pot of chili same day.

In fact, this actually happened to us about 6 months ago and we took the above approach and everything has tasted fine and no issues.

We've had this thread multiple times. Consensus was that if it didn't completely thaw And stayed relatively cold, refreeze and enjoy.

Many posters who did so and were still alive to tell.

Well it def thawed and was sitting between 34-54 for at least a full day

I'm usually pretty adventurous about re freezing but this one has me questioning things.

I'm refreezing vacuum sealed items.
Cooking raw items that weren't (not much).

Leftover type things reheating some / leaving in the fridge and we I'll see what we can eat.

I'm struggling with a bunch of leftover cooked bbq that was in Tupperware type storage....really don't want to toss it all....

I would toss it. Food is cheap and replaceable. Hospital bills and people aren't. Just my opinion.

If it's still cool to the touch, it's probably fine. Best thing to do, open a few packages and give it the smell test. If it still smells like fresh meat, then refreeze.

This happened to me several months ago with at least 150 lbs of deer and elk. Everything was thawed but still cool. Got a new freezer real fast, did some smell testing, and re-froze. It's a little darker colored but all is fine.

I would refreeze all of it and not worry about it, as long as it still smells ok.

Two days with just a cracked door means it was well below that temp for most of that time and likely still was.

Sodadude said:

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combat wombat said:

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Those of you saying to throw it all out, y'all know people weren't able to keep meats in deep freeze until about 100 years ago, right?

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100 years ago people liked their meat "gamey". And life expectancy was 54 years.

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No kidding. They'd let meat age until it was what I would consider ROTTEN.

Got a little story for ya, Ags.

A few years ago, my wife left the upright freezer cracked just slightly while we were gone for the weekend. She been in to retrieve some frozen breast milk on Friday afternoon for a weekend trip.

Sunday afternoon when we returned home, you could smell it when the garage door opened.

I cut open many packages of meat...from sausage to briskets to fish to pork butts. Most were rancid. Some smelled fine. I fired up the smoker and went to work. Smoked well into the evening with the intent to finish in the oven overnight. Moved meat inside early morning and returned to bed. When I awoke for work, the house smelled like buzzard bait!

The worst part of the story is I gave my wife a ****ty time for ruining the meat. Turns out she had over 100 packages of frozen breast milk that was also ruined. I sure didn't make that meat we had, but she'd produced every ounce of milk in that freezer.

Kiss your wife, tell her that you love her, throw the freezer contents in the trash, and move on.

Todd 02 said:

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Got a little story for ya, Ags.

A few years ago, my wife left the upright freezer cracked just slightly while we were gone for the weekend. She been in to retrieve some frozen breast milk on Friday afternoon for a weekend trip.

Sunday afternoon when we returned home, you could smell it when the garage door opened.

I cut open many packages of meat...from sausage to briskets to fish to pork butts. Most were rancid. Some smelled fine. I fired up the smoker and went to work. Smoked well into the evening with the intent to finish in the oven overnight. Moved meat inside early morning and returned to bed. When I awoke for work, the house smelled like buzzard bait!

The worst part of the story is I gave my wife a ****ty time for ruining the meat. Turns out she had over 100 packages of frozen breast milk that was also ruined. I sure didn't make that meat we had, but she'd produced every ounce of milk in that freezer.

Kiss your wife, tell her that you love her, throw the freezer contents in the trash, and move on.

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My wife would have cried for days. It isn't easy for all women to make enough to freeze, and that stuff is worth quite a bit.

We had a body builder offer us $1 per ounce and we had over 1200 ounces frozen at one point. Ended up donating it to some moms that had some immune deficient babies instead. We were going to just throw it away before we realized the demand for it.

Worst that can happen is getting the sheets, which I get nearly daily so I'd eat it or refreeze.

Ogre09 said:

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I would toss it. Food is cheap and replaceable. Hospital bills and people aren't. Just my opinion.

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Exactly.

In 10th grade, I got food poisoning and spent a week in the hospital. 7 days! I almost died.

If in doubt, throw it out. A few dollars of food is NOT worth all that.

Ok I'm pretty convinced to dump the already cooked food. Goodbye smoked chicken, brisket, clod. I'll miss you most of all pulled pork.

For the uncooked vacuum sealed meat, don't you think once I cook in the future it should be fine??

It's mostly ground beef. It there are a couple racks of ribs and some bacon & breakfast sausage.

I personally would toss everything...

Cooked crab cakes last night...didn't taste quite right but didn't get sick.

Also sous vide a bunch of chicken...didn't quite smell right.

Maybe paranoid but I'm tossing it all....