freezer thaw dilemma
September 4, 2021 9:11 AM Subscribe
Our freezer is/was full of lovely stuff. But in the past week, we have had two serious events. First, someone didn't close the door properly, and it was open for maybe six hours.
Second, a fuse burnt out, and this may have left the freezer out of power for 24 hours or even more. Come to think of it, the two events are probably related, so perhaps the thaw went on for 36 hours or even more.
I have thrown out the fish and the lovely fish roe, it is pretty certain that they have thawed and refrozen. But we have two free-range organic chickens that are amazing quality and hard to bin. Maybe they didn't thaw entirely? I'm thawing them, and they smell OK, but there are some weird blues bruises on one of them. Do we have to give them up?
Worst case scenario, if the open freezer-door triggered the fuse burning out, the freezer will have been not-functioning, but still very cold since Monday.
I have thrown out the fish and the lovely fish roe, it is pretty certain that they have thawed and refrozen. But we have two free-range organic chickens that are amazing quality and hard to bin. Maybe they didn't thaw entirely? I'm thawing them, and they smell OK, but there are some weird blues bruises on one of them. Do we have to give them up?
Worst case scenario, if the open freezer-door triggered the fuse burning out, the freezer will have been not-functioning, but still very cold since Monday.
EU and US health agencies agree that refreezing food that has defrosted at and to refrigerator temperatures isn't a problem, but I (like srboisvert) can't tell from your question whether you have enough information to know if that's what happened. If there's a risk that the food spent more than a short time above ~6°C (different agencies put the "danger zone" at slightly different points, but think fridge cold) you're best off chucking it. My view on problems like this similar to the above, but my pragmatism is mainly based on the psychological side of things: I never really enjoy eating things that I'm suspicious of. It tends to make me hypervigilant for "off" odours and tastes while cooking and eating, inclined to overcook things, and hypochondriacal about possible symptoms after eating. Add in the fact that refreezing degrades flavour and texture, and my general view is that food like this is subjectively spoiled, even though the objective risk of illness is very likely to be minimal.
posted by howfar at 10:13 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by howfar at 10:13 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]
Worst case scenario....but still very cold since Monday.
So, your freezer turned into a fridge? I'm not sure then why you'd need to throw anything out, but I'd make a point of cooking things ASAP.
posted by coffeecat at 10:53 AM on September 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
So, your freezer turned into a fridge? I'm not sure then why you'd need to throw anything out, but I'd make a point of cooking things ASAP.
posted by coffeecat at 10:53 AM on September 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
You could cook the chicken, taste a small portion, wait overnight to see if you become ill. You could do this now, or label, re-freeze, do it another time. I find chicken fairly susceptible to food poisoning, so I'd be reasonably cautious.
posted by theora55 at 11:29 AM on September 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 11:29 AM on September 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
If the freezer door was slightly open for about six hours, things may have thawed slightly near the top, but it is extremely unlikely that the temperature rose significantly above 0C. If the freezer was wide open, the situation would be different.
Likewise, 24 hours without power, while fully closed will not even fully thaw the contents of a chest freezer, unless it is nearly empty. If a day or two without power caused food in a freezer to go bad, I would have had constant food poisoning throughout my childhood!
Even if those two events were consecutive, it seems very unlikely that the internal temperature rose above fridge temperatures (again assuming the freezer door was slightly ajar, not wide open). So what you are dealing with is a potential loss of quality due to thawing and refreezing, but it seems very unlikely that there is a food safety issue, which would require the internal temperature to have risen significantly for hours.
Did anyone check the state of the food in the freezer after closing it fully or after replacing the fuse? That information could help provide reassurance that the food is safe to consume.
posted by ssg at 12:29 PM on September 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
Likewise, 24 hours without power, while fully closed will not even fully thaw the contents of a chest freezer, unless it is nearly empty. If a day or two without power caused food in a freezer to go bad, I would have had constant food poisoning throughout my childhood!
Even if those two events were consecutive, it seems very unlikely that the internal temperature rose above fridge temperatures (again assuming the freezer door was slightly ajar, not wide open). So what you are dealing with is a potential loss of quality due to thawing and refreezing, but it seems very unlikely that there is a food safety issue, which would require the internal temperature to have risen significantly for hours.
Did anyone check the state of the food in the freezer after closing it fully or after replacing the fuse? That information could help provide reassurance that the food is safe to consume.
posted by ssg at 12:29 PM on September 4, 2021 [2 favorites]
Also, good time to put in a couple of telltales, viz., jars half full of water, frozen hard, then you put a pebble in and label the jar.
Surely there are thermometers with a "max temp since last reset" flag, but cursory searching only found me plastic versions of the reused jar.
posted by clew at 7:35 PM on September 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
Surely there are thermometers with a "max temp since last reset" flag, but cursory searching only found me plastic versions of the reused jar.
posted by clew at 7:35 PM on September 4, 2021 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks for all the good advice. I have cooked one of the chickens in my pressure cooker, and it seems fine, and the stock is reducing on the stovetop while the other chicken is roasting in the oven, filled with garlic, parsley and lemon.
You won't believe it, but while they were thawing, I put them in the cold oven, to prevent the dog from stealing them from the countertop. And while I wasn't in the kitchen, two of the kids (they are 22 and allowed to go out ;-)) came home from drinking and turned on the oven to heat up some take-out! This is becoming a farce. We put a lot of stuff in the oven to protect it from the dog, for instance because we have too much bread to to store it in the bread box*. So no-one should turn on the oven without looking into it. the Luckily the oven is really slow, and the chickens were still frozen hard when the kids discovered their mistake.
Back to the chickens: when they thawed completely, they still smelled just fine, actually better than many I've bought at a supermarket. But is that a good indicator of anything?
*the kids, all four of them, are very much into saving food. I'm proud of them, and our food budget is very reasonable, but it does push my preference for a small fridge to the limit. This whole situation also involved one of them bringing kilos of meat home that were leftovers from an event. Which meant there wasn't room for thawing chickens in the fridge. I guess my life is a mess.
posted by mumimor at 10:21 AM on September 5, 2021
You won't believe it, but while they were thawing, I put them in the cold oven, to prevent the dog from stealing them from the countertop. And while I wasn't in the kitchen, two of the kids (they are 22 and allowed to go out ;-)) came home from drinking and turned on the oven to heat up some take-out! This is becoming a farce. We put a lot of stuff in the oven to protect it from the dog, for instance because we have too much bread to to store it in the bread box*. So no-one should turn on the oven without looking into it. the Luckily the oven is really slow, and the chickens were still frozen hard when the kids discovered their mistake.
Back to the chickens: when they thawed completely, they still smelled just fine, actually better than many I've bought at a supermarket. But is that a good indicator of anything?
*the kids, all four of them, are very much into saving food. I'm proud of them, and our food budget is very reasonable, but it does push my preference for a small fridge to the limit. This whole situation also involved one of them bringing kilos of meat home that were leftovers from an event. Which meant there wasn't room for thawing chickens in the fridge. I guess my life is a mess.
posted by mumimor at 10:21 AM on September 5, 2021
Not a mess, just - no waste while high variability is hard. The household might need a few more checklists.
Now the algorithm is showing me fridge thermometers with max/min records. Presumably some of them have high-temp alarms?
posted by clew at 1:20 PM on September 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
Now the algorithm is showing me fridge thermometers with max/min records. Presumably some of them have high-temp alarms?
posted by clew at 1:20 PM on September 5, 2021 [1 favorite]
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But as always my advice in this situation is to ask yourself how much you would have paid during your last experience of food poisoning to not experience it. If the value of your food is less than that amount - toss it.
posted by srboisvert at 9:57 AM on September 4, 2021 [1 favorite]