Can I recover this freezer full of Cook food?

[JanisMoplin]

Apologies if this is a really stupid question. We do not eat frozen food much; mostly cook from scratch and no ready meals. But am very busy this coming week, so I ordered some Cook meals. Mostly veggie but also one chicken and one fish dish. Anyway, I discovered my cleaner had unplugged the standalone freezer at about 5 pm yesterday by mistake, and I did not notice until 9 am this morning. The meals are all still frozen, but would they be edible or have to be thrown out? Such an expensive mistake! I am in London and it was the hottest day of the year yesterday.

As long as the food is still frozen solid you’ll be fine.

I'd say if they are still frozen & the freezer is back on they'd be OK.

If you have any doubts then the chicken & fish dishes might need to go. Veggie ones will be OK.

I'd keep & eat the lot from your description. @

The freezer is back on. I guess there is no way of knowing. I might just eat the veggie ones and throw out the other 2. And the icecream which is a puddle!

As others have said if the food is still frozen it will be fine, freezers maintain their temperature for a long time as long as they are not opened.

Put something on the plug which says DO NOT UNPLUG to prevent it happening again!

If something raw has defrosted you can cook it and re-freeze it.

Oh good. The freezer has not been opened. It is a standalone freezer which we just recently bought for just this eventuality.

Yes, I will explain to her and put a sticker on the plug. She is really very good otherwise; perhaps she just had an off day:)

I think that is sensible, the chicken and the fish ones are the only ones I'd be cautious about and yes to chucking the ice cream as it will have icicles in it if it refreezes!

Just make sure you cook the meals thoroughly and they are piping hot.

I got really bad food poisoning from ice cream that had defrosted and was refrozen. But if that had defrosted, why hadn't the meals?

The cook meals will be fine in the fridge for a few days. I'd refreeze the veggie ones, put the meat and fish in the fridge and eat over the next few days. If they say cook from frozen ignore this!

Please don't throw away perfectly good and expensive food!

If the meal is still frozen, what on earth do you think might have happened to it to make it unsafe?? Bacteria growth is stopped completely in a freezer (usually around minus 18) and is massively slowed in a fridge (up to 4-5 degrees).

So even if the food had defrosted up to fridge temperature it would still be safe to eat.

If it's still frozen there is absolutely nothing that means it would need to be thrown away.

It’ll be fine -

The only way it wouldn’t be is if the freezer was left so long they got warm and sat there pulsating. Clearly you are far from this.

Honestly don’t waste them, there is nothing wrong with them!

As long as the freezer door isn't opened contents will stay frozen for 24+ hours.

(used to have a lot of power cuts)

The food will be fine.

If they stay chilled (so defrosted but still cold) they are fine to refreeze, it's only if they warm above that you need to worry. As it stayed closed you're almost certainly fine.

If the ice cream is a puddle, then it must have been warm in there?

I was puzzled by the icecream too so enquired within. Found that feckless DS left the icecream out all last night when staying up studying and put it back in this morning. Grrrr....

"pulsating" :D😄

The ice cream can be taken out of the equation then. That's the only thing that would have made me question how warm everything had got but if everything that was in the freezer was frozen solid still I'd have no worries eating as normal.