Frozen food

ravenlooney

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but anyway....
We were without electricity for 28 hours yesterday, due to the huge storm. The food in my freezer started to defrost slightly (went kind of soft on the outside but still solid in the middle). The freezer still had some frosty stuff in it though. I was just going to cook up what I could when the power came back on and refreeze it as meals. But the power came on in the early hours when I was in bed and it froze completely again by the time I got to it this morning. Is it still safe to use? Ive got lots of good meat and sausages in there (had just stocked up with a 'cow share' thing) and I dont want to have to chuck them all, but dont want to poison us all either!!

Savvy_Sue

I know the 'official' advice is to chuck the lot, but if you can't claim on your home contents insurance I know I'd be tempted to cook it and refreeze, at least for non-vulnerable people, ie NOT the pregnant, elderly, young children, or anyone who's already unwell or 'at risk' if they get ill.

Quality definitely goes down on some things, anything which was 'free flow' will now be a solid block etc.

Problem is you don't know how much it defrosted, and best advice if power is off is not to open the freezer door AT ALL. I don't know how long you've got if you keep the door completely shut.

At the end of the day it's you running the risk of e-coli, salmonella etc!

ravenlooney

Thanks Sue, I think I might just chuck it all. Ive got a young family and I really dont fancy dealing with food poisoning just cos ive tried to save a few quid!!

Is it worth claiming on my contents insurance? Id say that there was about £100 worth of food there, is it worth it for losing my no claims discount?

Lillibet_2

You can only claim on your contents insurance if you took out the "frozen food" option, which normally costs a few quid extra but has a very low excess. In my experience it doesn't affect your no-claims discount (kinfd of like a broken windscreen on car insurance).

HTH
Lillibet (Who'd risk it & re-freeze!)

squarecat

Just a quick tip,
Don't undervalue what you have in your freezer.

It doesn't matter if you got it reduced or bogof, the cover is for replacement. Use an online store to get an accurate replacement cost to see if it is worth claiming.

Another one who would cook (thoroughly) and refreeze.

chardonnay_2

think stuff is okay if the power has only been off for 12 hours and you keep freezer closed.

happened to us a few years ago and electric company also compensated us. they don't come to check your freezer contents either, we could claim up to £250.

ravenlooney

Thanks all for your advice. For safetys sake I will chuck and claim insurance (thankfully I took the added option when I renewed last week!)
Thanks again

macchicken

Chuck to lot and claim it off the electricity company!
My 83 year old grandfather lives on one of the scottish islands and hes been without electricty since monday and todays friday!
The electricty company offered him a fish supper at half past seven tonight as compensation!
He politly pionted out that he had his dinner while it was still light enough to see the cooker!
Bombard your electricty company with letters untill you see some results!
Didn't martin do a realy good bit on r2 about complaining last year!

Glad

I would claim from house insurance for food and also claim from elec company for inconvienience, have a look below and maybe look into it a little further but you should be due something

Power cut compensation

If you are without electricity for more than 18 hours under normal circumstances, then you are entitled to £50 compensation from your regional distribution company. Under unusual circumstances companies may be exempt from paying, and Ofgem has to determine whether compensation should be paid. For example, after the severe storms in October 2002, electricity firms agreed to pay around £1.8 million in compensation to 21,000 customers who suffered from power cuts, after Ofgem determined that levels of service relating to reconnection fell below acceptable standards.

ravenlooney

Hi,
Yes I might try to get compensation from the electricity company, but to be fair, it was the weather that put the power out, trees were down everywhere, the roof even blew off the newly built tescos!! It was definetly unsafe for them to send out engineers on Tuesday night. BUT how long will it be for them to update our lines and put them underground like they have in London (i think) cos every time there is a storm we have to go without power for a while. It was just about 24 hours longer than usual this time! Thats what I get for living in N Scotland eh?

Mind you, its worth trying and it was a great inconvenience and I had to go to a lot of extra expense buying a camping stove and gas to give my kids a hot meal and heat the living room.

Thanks again everyone!!

Savvy_Sue

I'm glad I'm not the only one who'd defrost, cook and refreeze, but not necessarily if the kids were still young. ;D