Can I eat this pint of locally made Earl Grey tea ice cream?

September 2, 2020 5:37 PM

I bought a pint of locally made Earl Grey tea ice cream a week ago, from a deli (not the maker, just the seller). It was a little melty on arrival and leaking, because NYC delivery in the heat. It was also leaking because there's a hole along one edge of the lid, where the cardboard folds over. It doesn't have a plastic seal under the lid. It's been in my freezer a week, but I don't know how long it might've been like this before that. It looks OK inside. Can I eat it?
posted by limeonaire to Food & Drink (10 answers total)

Response by poster: By OK inside, by the way, I mean, you can see where it was more melty under that spot in the container, on the top of the ice cream. But it looks clean, with no obvious contamination, just a little ice on top of that spot where it melted and refroze. I just don't know how worried to be about factors like "what if COVID," since I've read it can survive freezing. I eat plenty of delivery takeout, of course, that also isn't vacuum-sealed. But that food is all freshly made and hasn't been in a deli freezer in unknown conditions for a while.
posted by limeonaire at 5:52 PM on September 2, 2020

You would almost certainly be fine, and I hate to waste food too, but this amount of anxiety is not a fair trade for the cost of a pint of ice cream and there will be no joy in ice cream tied to this kind of anxiety. Rinse it down the drain, wash your hands of it both literally and metaphorically and get on with your life free of this burden. There will be other ice cream.
posted by mhoye at 6:14 PM on September 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Icecream that has melted on the edge, but not melted all the way through, has still been very cold at all times.

It has not been in the danger zone of temperature, or the middle would have melted too.

If you're really paranoid, cut off the melted & refrozen bit.
But honestly, mostly just because the texture is not as good, as there's no danger from it as it was still cold, just not frozen-cold.

Enjoy, or give it to someone, it's fine.
posted by Elysum at 6:39 PM on September 2, 2020 [10 favorites]

Best answer: Honestly, I would totally eat this, because like 75% of the ice cream I buy from the deli is equally suspect in terms of partial melting/refreezing, probably because my deli guy bought it from thieves who stole it from a Duane Reade.

Presumably the ice cream was frozen at the deli before you got it, or it would have melted more significantly. (I would not in any way be worried about getting COVID from this ice cream, btw, I think it's pretty well established that you are not going to get COVID from eating food.) My risk calculations above are really just about regular food poisoning, and as the commenter above said, if the vast majority of the ice cream was still frozen, then even the melty bits were still really cold, and then you re-froze it, so it hasn't been in the danger zone, really.
posted by sparkling at 6:45 PM on September 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Best answer: What? Of course you can eat it.
posted by danceswithlight at 6:59 PM on September 2, 2020 [5 favorites]

Best answer: If you don’t eat it, I will.
posted by wind_up at 7:25 PM on September 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: If Covid survives the freezer your concerns are bigger than the melted and refrozen ice cream, why order it at all versus the "freshly made" food you willingly eat. Regulate the anxiety, eat the ice cream. Simply melting and refreezing of ice cream is not a Covid risk.
posted by whatdoyouthink? at 7:50 PM on September 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I am not an epidemiologist, but the COVID thing's probably OK because it got warmer. If you are concerned I guess wipe down the container, but personally it's the food safety axis that I would worry about.

Food safety: frozen stuff should be stored at -18c.
The danger zone is between 5 and 60c. (When bacteria multiply and are active).

How melted and leaky? Just a little, I would eat, of majorly leaked, probably not.
posted by freethefeet at 8:17 PM on September 2, 2020

Response by poster: Resolved: I'm eating it, may God or the universe have mercy on my soul.
posted by limeonaire at 8:46 PM on September 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: It's kinda funny: Despite my concerns, the pandemic actually has made me more likely to want to eat this, when normally if a container had a hole in it I probably wouldn't eat it and would just walk a block to the store to get another, because it's just such a pain to try to get ice cream right now (or to get issues with deliveries corrected without feeling like I'm unnecessarily endangering myself or delivery folks). That's definitely on my list of items that have been most difficult to source and have delivered. Anyway, it tastes great!
posted by limeonaire at 8:52 PM on September 2, 2020