Food defrosted...?

[doomey]

There was a big power failure here that started at about 11 a.m., yesterday , and didn't end until some time this morning. The only thing is that I have been unable to find out what time it ended. The radio isn't mentioning it and neither is the Internet. All I know is that I couldn't sleep because of the heat, etc., and didn't settle until probably just before 5 a.m. this morning.

I'm wondering because I had some meat in the freezer. I didn't dare check it last night because I didn't know how long the power would be out. When I checked it at 11 a.m. this morning, which is about the time I awoke, it seemed to be mostly frozen, but I'm not sure what to do about it. It's a fairly new fridge, and I do know that my stuff was still cold yesterday at around 6 p.m., though I didn't check to see if the meat was frozen.

Some of the stuff in the fridge wasn't as cold as usual this morning, I don't think, and there was evidence of some partial thawing in the freezer. It looks as if the ice cubes melted somewhat or evaporated a little (must have been the auto defrost that did that), but they were on the door. The meat was right at the back underneath some frozen vegetables. There aren't any ice crystals anywhere, but could the auto defrost have cleaned that up?

Does anyone have any idea how long it takes things to thaw out refreeze, etc? The meat has been in the freezer for months; so, it was very well frozen when this happened. If I cooked the meat to well-done (it's stewing beef; so it gets well-cooked anyway) would it still be alright?

(posted on behalf of Stich)

[ursula62]

Most freezers these days can keep food frozen without power for approx 8 hours, PROVIDED YOU DON'T OPEN THE FREEZER DOORS.  Chest freezers are better at this than the ones with front opening doors as the cold air sinks.  If you open the freezer and let the cold air out then the time food can stay frozen is considerably reduced.

If I were you I would cook the meat and then refreeze it in portion sized quantities - e.g. casseroles, spag bol etc. I'd chuck out all the dairy items like icecream and any cakes. The veg should be fine.

[jake-the-peg]

Sounds like it would be OK, did you have any ice-cream in the freezer? this can be an indicator because it goes icy if refrozen.

The electricity company should be able to tell you when power was restored if you call them up  

[doomey]

thanks for the answers so far guys and dolls.

I will let Stitch know..

[grannyg]

 The food should be okay as long as it was not completely defrosted, of course the information about ice-cream from the other people is correct.

If you have a clock which is run by electricity that should be able to indicate the length of the power cut, by the number of hours it is behind unless it didn't restart when the electricity was restored.