Freezer was unplugged for 6 days. Am I screwed?

[Panzerfauste]

I'm so furious. My dad came over to use some tools while I was away and unplugged my freezer to plug in a tool. It's a standing deep freeze that was full with 3 deers, lots of fish, and some elk from the previous year.

I get my meat out of the freezer on the weekend for the upcoming week so I havent checked my freezer in a week until this morning when I saw everything was completely thawed out.

So It's been unplugged for 6 days and I just plugged it back in. The door was never opened and the freezer is outside where it's been around freezing temp at night.

What would you guys do in the situation? I've never wanted to disown a family member so much in my life.

There was a little bit of ice left that hadn't completely melted but all the meat was soft .

I figured it probably remained frozen for about 3 days and then was about fridge temp for the last 3 days.


I'm thinking that most of the red meat would be salvageable, but all the fish is probably garbage.

[Would Rather Be Fishing]

Annoying, I get it. From my experience, though, you should be ok. Ice buildup and everything freezing into one huge clump would be my biggest concern. In terms of meat quality it sounds like you should be ok! In my experience most meat products can survive a few thaw/refreeze cycles without any compromise in quality.

Fish, very different story, I would be a lot more careful with the fish. By no means an expert, but I would use the fish as soon as it thawed, and not refreeze it again.... But that's just me

[adriaticum]

let your nose be your guide, disown the father either way!

[Gateholio]

If the meat was cold when you investigated it, then it's fine. If it was warm then it's not so good.

Everything will lose moisture, especially the fish. I would start eating fish and/or canning it.

If everything stayed fridge temp and was cool to the touch then nothing likely rotted.

[dmaxtech]

Pressure can the fish as soon as possible. The red meat should be fine. Think of it as a delayed aging process.

[goatdancer]

Smoke up all your fish. All the fish that I smoke are frozen first.

[Panzerfauste]

So I did some digging and found the USDA recommends if any of the food is over 40 degrees faren it needs to get tossed. I hit a few packages of the meat with the thermometer and every was 30 or lower. Crisis averted.

I went through and dried off every package and got rid of any excess liquid so it didn't turn into a block of ice. Some areas were still a little frozen after I started digging through it all.

I ordered an alarm for the freezer to let me know if it gets too warm too

I thanking my laziness, I hadn't defrosted that freezer in 10 years and it had a solid few inches of ice along all the walls that I think really kept that sucker cold.

[srupp]

am glad it turned out well..so far..GREAT WARNING and information..
when we go away our friend/caretaker SPECIFICALLY checks the freezer..
our freezer has a battery powered alarm..
our insurance company covers food spoilage in fridge and freezer units..however can only replace wild game meats with beef or pig....
thank you for the reminder..
cheers
Steven

[igojuone]

Sight, if it's not a normal colour; smell, if it stinks and touch, if it's slimy out it goes. I've got an iron gut so I'll even just wash off the slime as long as the other 2 aren't present and I'm good to go.

[Bugle M In]

My wife would have hucked it before I even finished typing it to ask!!!!:)

[Iron Glove]

A couple who were friends of our Daughter's used the cabin for a few days maybe 10 - 12 years ago.
We have standing instructions to turn off breaker "Blue #20" when leaving, it's for the water pump and we don't want a situation where a leak would cause water to run constantly. Arrive at the cabin 2 weeks later, it's early September, been pretty hot for a long time let the dogs in, they run to the laundry room where the freezer is, smelling all around it. I noticed that some of the lights weren't working, looked at the panel and "Black #22" had been turned off OK, flip it on then Oh,Oh, the freezer.
Opened it up, horrid smell and full of soft gushy crap, close it up, left it until it all refroze. Friend of our Son said he's take it to the dump, let him keep the freezer.
Pretty gross.

[IslandWanderer]

I'd guess it's probably OK, but I'd still be nervous feeding it to my family.

[MOOSE MILK]

You can get more deer and fish, you will never get another father.

[twoSevenO]

Noooope. I would not risk it after 6 days. Even if it was ok I know I'd never be able to enjoy it as every bite would be an analysis of whether it was "off"

Call it a loss and avoid getting sick. Six days is a pretty long time

[HarryToolips]

I'm so furious. My dad came over to use some tools while I was away and unplugged my freezer to plug in a tool. It's a standing deep freeze that was full with 3 deers, lots of fish, and some elk from the previous year.

I get my meat out of the freezer on the weekend for the upcoming week so I havent checked my freezer in a week until this morning when I saw everything was completely thawed out.

So It's been unplugged for 6 days and I just plugged it back in. The door was never opened and the freezer is outside where it's been around freezing temp at night.

What would you guys do in the situation? I've never wanted to disown a family member so much in my life.

There was a little bit of ice left that hadn't completely melted but all the meat was soft .

I figured it probably remained frozen for about 3 days and then was about fridge temp for the last 3 days.


I'm thinking that most of the red meat would be salvageable, but all the fish is probably garbage.

I would agree, throw our the fish, the red meat should be OK.. try it in a smaller quantity first..

[lovemywinchester]

I did that one summer. Unplugged the small freezer to use power tools and forgot the plug it back in. Lost a bunch of WT and a spring bear hide I had rolled up. Inch of crap in the bottom and horrendous smell. Right to the dump.

[igojuone]

I knew a guy that delivered meat to restaurants some years ago, they would keep meat in sealed containers for many days while it turned green and blue on the outside. Restaurants wanted it this way as it was aging, they would then trim all the bad meat off and sell the inner good meat at a premium.

[tyreguy]

I recently put a thermometer with a remote wire on the wall behind my freezer with the remote wire in the freezer. Every time I walk by that freezer I can glance at the temperature which is usually -15 to -28. Records high low too.
for $10-15 it’s worth it.
Moved one time, tipped the freezer up moving it downstairs then reloaded the meat back in and plugged it I. 3 weeks later I opened the lid. Learned a lesson on letting cooling units sit before plugging back in.

[IslandWanderer]

It's not as good as a proper alarm, but I have a small plastic container in my freezer that's half full of ice with a coin sitting on top. I should get an actual alarm though.

[srupp]

during the fires several years ago reported to Boitano mall where numerous adjusters were there to deal with insured losses..the adjuster next to us was dealing with power loss to a couples home..i listened and learned about freezers..that after X amount of days the contents of freezer was written off as complete loss.HOWEVER so was the freezer unit..regardless of age..contents suspect..tossed as was the freezer..NO ATTEMPT at cleaning..freezers are not expensive items.in 33 years in our home only on second chest type freezer.
srupp