Re-frozen food after freezer door left open.......

[zephyrcat]

Earlier on I noticed the freezer door slightly open and the food had defrosted but was still cold. I've since shut the door to clear it all out later and it's all re-frozen and now I'm starving I'm wondering what the implications are of cooking it???

I know you should never re-freeze anything but is it just to be over-cautious or will it really make us ill?

errrrr....well meat products I would chance, but not sure on other stuff.

FWIW, I have had refrozen veg and bread before with no apparent poisonings, but its your call really.

What foods is it??

The main things are meat - bag of frozen mince and some chicken and broccolli lattice things....

put it this way - almost all of last year our freezer wasn't freezing properly - sometimes it did, sometimes it half froze - and sometimes it didn't (so food that was in there for a little while could defrost, refreeze and defrost again etc etc - I used all of the stuff - and we're all still alive and kicking..........

No then....wouldn't chance it. well, except maybe the broccoli thingy.

Mince and chicken is the worst for food poisoning

I would chuck the meat but keep the veggie stuff tbh - epsecially in this ehat - food poisoning is the last thing you want.....

How are you apart from that zephyrcat?!

Hiya Tommy - not too bad - still homeless though!!

Hmm.... I dont know what to do! Does anyone know why we'd ill from it going to fridge temp and then back to frozen?

I think it's something to do with the composition of frozen food - particles or something and when they refreeze something bad happens.....

(I am not a scientist BTW just in case you didn't realise )

sorry you're still homeless - is that in Bitterne still?

I've managed to find a web page on it at last and apparently it's safe. Phew - I'm starving!!!

We're still in Bitterne in the house we were renting waiting for the council to sort something out - it's taking a biot longer because I'm trying to stay over this side for dd's school.. still scary though!!

So are you saying that refrozen meat is actually ok, as long as it stayed cold????

at all the times I have thrown out meat that could have in fact been edible!!!

There were conflicting sites - some said that as long as it was still chilled you could re-freeze it, others said that you have to either cook it straight away or bin it, so I'm still none the wiser!!

Haven't eaten it though, going to bin it.

If it is raw then you can cook it no problems.

Have you kept it cold since you discovered the problem? If so, just treat the meat as fresh. Cook up into meals and then freeze again.

No it re-froze. When I found it defrosted I just thought I had to chuck it so shut the door to bin it all tonight.

The only time it would be a big problem is if the meat actually warmed up beyond fridge temperature, or if the defrost/freeze cycle happened constantly.

I would have risked keeping it to be honest.

It's all still in there, frozen, because I'm still not sure!!! I might use it for me and dp, just not the kids.