Freezer been switched off / door left open - will food be ok?

charlies_mum

We had an 11 hour power cut yesterday, so the freezer went off. I opened it once to rescue some fish and put them into a friends freezer, but other than that, kept it closed.

It is a large chest freezer and is almost full, but as the power came back on in the middle of the night, I don't know if anything had started to defrost.

Anyone know whether the food will be OK ?

purpleivy

check ice cream if you have any, that would be the first to defrost. I would imagine that if it is almost full it will be fine. Core temp would remain low if it was kept shut during that time

floyd

Should be fine, most foods in a closed freezer will stay frozen for 24 hours

Stephen_Leak

And, as it is a chest freezer, the cold air wouldn't have fallen out when you opened the door to get the fish.

PS. Now might be a good time to check the household insurance's freezer contents cover, if any.

Pollycat

I'd be inclined to agree that being a chest freezer and almost full, it will probably be OK.

Maybe you could think about using up the stuff that may have been more inclined to defrost quicker.
For example, if you have thin pork chops and a large beef joint, use the chops first.

I've recently bought a large upright freezer and some of the models I was looking at gave 'Power Failure Autonomy' of 10 hours, 20 hours, 24, 28 hours and even 32 hours.

Regards
Polly

Melise

Not that this would help you for this time, but a way to tell if food has defrosted and then refrozen is to make some ice cubes up, once they're frozen transfer them to a freezer bag. If at anytime you lose power then you can check the bag of ice cubes to see if they're all clumped together in one mass. If so, then everything in the freezer needs binned.

I agree that everything in the freezer from your power cut yesterday should be fine though.

Stephen_Leak

Melise wrote: »

Not that this would help you for this time, but a way to tell if food has defrosted and then refrozen is to make some ice cubes up, once they're frozen transfer them to a freezer bag. If at anytime you lose power then you can check the bag of ice cubes to see if they're all clumped together in one mass. If so, then everything in the freezer needs binned.

What an elegantly simple idea!

LandyAndy

We had an eleven hour power cut last autumn. The food in our upright freezer was fine. The temperature guage showed the internal temperature had risen from -18 to -6 so still well under 0.

charlies_mum

margaretclare wrote: »

In the years when we used to have power cuts (probably before you were born!) the advice was always 'keep it closed'.

I obviously sound younger than I am - I'm a fifty year old grandma

Bargain_Rzl

Hi everybody,

Just a quick one - the motor on my fridge-freezer is making a horrible grinding noise, and I'm having it seen to on Wednesday afternoon, however in the meantime I have to coexist with it in an open-plan flat :rolleyes:

The freezer is chocka with ready prepared HM soups and other things, along with some meat and fish. The fridge has the usual odds and ends. Other than the loud noise, it's working fine.

If I leave the freezer closed, will the stuff in it be OK if I switch it off while I'm in and awake? There are two doors I can shut between it and my bed, and I work all day. So we're talking switching it off between 6:30 and 8:00am, and between about 7:30pm and midnight. And on Wednesday, if the "working from home while waiting in for the fridge man" plan is to work, I might have to switch it off for much of the day, too.

Any thoughts, food safety wise?

Thanks

Skint_Catt

They are well insulated but personally I would think 7.30pm til midnight is a bit too long for it to keep itself at a reasonable temp.

Be extra careful of any meats.

Catt xx