Will I have to throw the entire contents of my freezer away?

[newlife82]

My freezer got accidentally unplugged yesterday around 6pm. I have just discovered this and had to throw some things out (chicken, fish etc). Everything is partially defrosted.

Will cooked chilli (made with beef mince) be safe to eat as it's been slowly defrosting since last night? It's still partially frozen now.

Also I assume vegetables like peas will be ok?

What about bread?

I thought everything would be ok for something like 48 hours, as long as the door was shut. Did I make that up?! I would assume everything is ok.

If it was uncooked fish and chicken you can cook it and refreeze it. Everything's fine for 24 hours as you are supposed to defrost things overnight anyway!

Things like bread are fine. They might just not taste as nice or be a bit hard.

Ready meals just eat today.

Veg etc just refreeze.

I wouldn’t refreeze anything without changing its state, but I wouldn’t have thrown out the fish and chicken I’d have batch cooked things and frozen them all after cooking.
Of course your chilli will be fine, don’t you always defrost your mince before cooking it?!

How annoying! If raw meat is still cold it should be safe to cook even if it is partially defrosted. Then you can refreeze it so you could save some by batch cooking.
If the chilli is pre cooked but not fully defrosted that should be fine to eat today.
The texture of things like bread won't be great if you re freeze it but would probably be ok for toast.

You would normally take chicken or fish out 24 hours before you want to use it so why on earth throw food away that's barely defrosted?

Refreeze veg and bread. Eat the pre cooked food over the next few days and if there's any uncooked meat or fish left just cook it and freeze.

I wouldn't throw anything away just because it's started to defrost. It will all be OK in the fridge for a couple of days and as PP says, you can cook and refreeze things you can't use in the next 2 days

Raw meat and fish can be cooked today then refrozen

I'd just plug it in and re freeze it all!