There was a bag of ice in the freezer that didn't melt at all. But some of my meat has thawed but is still cold. Door was cracked open ~12 hours.

Am I ok to just let it all refreeze?

Is it partially frozen? If it is all the way thawed out, I'd trash it. Partially frozen - keep it. But, that's just me.

It's a close call on thawed. A lot of thawed enough where I can move it around by hand but it's a little crunchy- like just a little frozen still.

Refreeze.

George08 said:

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It's a close call on thawed. A lot of thawed enough where I can move it around by hand but it's a little crunchy- like just a little frozen still.

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In no way am I going to tell you that it is safe to do it, but I had a similar thing happen to me 4-5 years ago when my freezer door was left open and I ate almost everything in there without getting sick. Maybe it was dumb luck but I wasn't about to toss thousands of dollars in meat without trying to see if it was fine first. Worked out for me...

Eat what you can, refreeze the rest and eat as soon as you can.

Where's urs?


If it's fridge cold even if completely thawed, I'm keeping and refreezing. Taste might be affected from thaw-freeze, but oh well.

Sounds like my wife was there. Was every single light in the house on too?

TXAG 05 said:

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Sounds like my wife was there. Was every single light in the house on too?

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So much this!!!! My wife always leaves the porch light on.

zooguy96 said:

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TXAG 05 said:

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Sounds like my wife was there. Was every single light in the house on too?

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So much this!!!! My wife always leaves the porch light on.

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Yep, but if I do it (once in a blue moon) I will hear about it!

At cool temps, that's not nearly long enough to worry.
It took over a week for my deep freeze to thaw out when Ike killed the power at my house. Even then, much of it was still actually partly or completely frozen.

People leave fringing steaks out for days to "age"
them for whatever reason.

Meat doesn't putrefy that fast except in the right conditions. The only question about thawing and re-freezing is maybe a bit of quality deterioration from freezer burn but you really have to be pretty picky to notice that in my experience.

jejdag said:

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zooguy96 said:

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TXAG 05 said:

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Sounds like my wife was there. Was every single light in the house on too?

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So much this!!!! My wife always leaves the porch light on.

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Yep, but if I do it (once in a blue moon) I will hear about it!

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Yep, if you do something that you normally don't do, you hear about it.
If they do something that they always do and you say anything, you still hear about it.

Refreeze, but make it a point to eat the expensive stuff asap. Lost a rib roast from just this. Thawed it out and it was a stinkin. Broke my heart to toss that out.

George08 said:

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There was a bag of ice in the freezer that didn't melt at all. But some of my meat has thawed but is still cold. Door was cracked open ~12 hours.

Am I ok to just let it all refreeze?

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If the meat was in the fridge for 6-12 hours longer before you froze it, would you be concerned?

ETA: This is a legit question and not meant to be condescending. It's how I would make my decision on each package.

I had this happen last Summer and lost all of my deer meat. My freezer is in the garage, so when we found the stream of water on the garage floor and the freezer door was cracked open, I knew we were screwed. I've since added a latch to the freezer door. When the door is closed, you have to close the latch. It won't open unless we manually open the latch.

Much like the poster above, I had this happen a couple of summers ago. My freezer is in the garage. Had some people over for a get together and somehow it got left cracked open. Didn't notice it until the smell hit.

I lost an axis, two deer, some briskets, ribs, rib roasts, etc.

I now have a latch and an alarm on the freezer.

my GFCI went out on my freezer the other day and the temp got into the 30s there was still ice in the freezer but the meat felt mostly thawed to the squeeze. I just reset it and and re froze it all. I figure its the same thing as letting it thaw in the fridge and changing my mind and re freezing (which I've done numerous times)

Even USDA says its cool: The U. S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) advises: Once food is thawed in the refrigerator, it is safe to refreeze it without cooking, although there may be a loss of quality due to the moisture lost through thawing. ... If previously cooked foods are thawed in the refrigerator, you may refreeze the unused portion.

Needless to say I went and bought a cordless freezer temp alarm unit after this

Bacteria growth does not re-start until over 46.4 degrees. If it was still crunchy, that;'s about 29-30, so it should be just fine.

Yesterday I found our freezer door hadn't sealed completely and the last time I was in there was about 5 days prior.

Most everything in the door was thawed but still had some ice crystals. Most stuff in the main compartment was still solid or slightly soft.

I left the meat to refreeze, dumped a few leaking ziploc bags of vegetables that had been in there for years anyways, and made a cobbler with the last of the dewberries since they thawed out.

Live and learn, and hope we don't get sick next time I use the meat.

Wife's mother unplugged ours accidentally in the garage. 6 days unplugged didn't notice until it started draining.

Lost most everything odd thing was a bag of ice was not melted at all most everything that we couldn't eat over the next few days..was around 40 degrees but somehow ice was still there...

1990Hullaballoo said:

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Bacteria growth does not re-start until over 46.4 degrees. If it was still crunchy, that;'s about 29-30, so it should be just fine.

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That, my friend, is some precision.

Any recommendations on a freezer alarm? A wife, a 4 and 2 year old boy make for a lot of open freezers…

Here's the one I got. It will work on two units. I put it on the garage fridge/freezer and the garage upright freezer.

I'm sure there are tons of different models, but this has worked well.

ORIA Refrigerator Thermometer, Wireless Digital Freezer Thermometer with 2 Wireless Sensors, Wireless Indoor Outdoor Thermometer, Audible Alarm, Min and Max Display, LCD Display for Home, Restaurants https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B9QF64N/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_6Z4FHEPWW5A0VVDTTVEV?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Bought that exact one. Its worked well and its easy to set up.

Ordered, thanks!

Had my drain freeze over in an upright and the coil defrost cycle keep repeating for half a day. Stated to melt the outer layers of the contents, but I figured that it wasn't nearly enough time or temp to start significant bacteria growth. No issues.

Different brand, but we have two of these magneted onto our kitchen refrigerator. One for the garage freezer and one for the garage fridge. Very loud audible alarms if the temp gets out of the range. The upper and lower limits are programmable by sensor also.

Although they were cheaper when we bought them compared to now. Thanks Brandon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XD68GX6/