Freezer door left open - do I have to chuck everything out?

[weightedblanketpls]

Hi, I came downstairs at 7 today and found the freezer door open just slightly. I think it must have been like that from between 12/8 hours. Do I need to chuck everything out?

It's still cold inside but clearly been slowly defrosting...

No. It will all be fine.

Feel the food and see if it’s still solid or not

No, it would have been working overtime to keep cold and trying to get down to the correct temperature. This happened to me a couple of months ago. And I’m still alive to tell the tale! I took the view that anything in there that might have had nasties in it was going to be thoroughly cooked before eating anyway.

I would have thought it's fine just to refreeze most of it.
If you have any part defrosted seafood I would probably take that out. Ice cream might be a bit of an odd texture if it's part defrosted and refrozen but unlikely to be off in that time.

Depends if it's defrosted. I probably wouldn't if it's still mostly frozen. You kinda just have to use your judgement. What have you got in there? Frozen pizza (wouldn't chuck), peas/frozen veg (wouldn't chuck), ice-cream (is it melted? Wouldn't chuck). Fish? I'd be cautious. If you're not sure then just cook what you can. You'll have 3 days to eat it after cooking.

Chuck seafood, keep everything else.

This happened to us recently. The ice cream was melted but everything else still felt frozen. I was slightly nervous when we ate some of the meat, but it’s been fine, no problems at all. If there’d been fish in the freezer then that’s the only thing I’d have thrown away.

Ok thank you. Most of the contents is batch cooked meals which are either veggie or contained cooked meat / chicken. Kids fruit ice lollies, homemade bread, and frozen veg. I have some prawns which I'll chuck.

That sounds like a good call 👍