power outage/frozen meat
We were on vacation for a week. The neighbor said we were out of power the whole time. We have a chest freezer full of beef. It thawed but remained in the freezer unopened the whole time. Is the meat bad if it is thawed but still cold? Can we refreeze it and eat it?
Best Answer
You may be able to salvage some or all of it if the meat was still cold enough to contain ice crystals, otherwise I'm afraid it's a total loss. There is a guide here.
If you do have to discard it, check with your homeowner's insurance company. They might cover the loss.
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Frozen Food and Power Outages: When to Save It and When to Throw It Out. A full freezer will hold a safe temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full and the door remains closed). Food may be safely refrozen if it still contains ice crystals or is at 40°F or below, however, its quality may suffer ...How long will frozen meat last without power?
If the doors stay closed, food will stay safe for up to: 4 hours in a refrigerator. 48 hours in a full freezer; 24 hours in a half-full freezer.Can you refreeze meat after a power outage?
Meat and Poultry (raw):Refreeze if ice crystals are still present. Fully thawed meats or poultry that are still cold and that have no off-odors or signs of spoilage can be cooked and eaten or refrozen after cooking.Back Up Power: How to Protect the Food in Your Freezer During a Power Outage
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Answer 2
The common rule of thumb is 48hrs for a full fridge or freezer before it's a loss. (this of course changes depending on the temperature at the time; less filled fridges spoil faster than full fridges)
Odds are, the items in the fridge are a loss unless it's something that didn't really need to be refrigerated.
For the freezer, if there are items that are still below 40°F / 4°C, they're still within safe fridge temperatures. You don't want to attempt to re-freeze, but you can still safely cook it and either re-freeze or consume it.
This is one of those times when infrared thermometers comes in handy -- but you need to test just as the power comes back on, or you won't get an accurate measure of what temperature they got up to. With a chest freezer, there's a good chance that the items at the bottom are going to be colder than the stuff on top, so even if the stuff on top has thawed (assuming it hasn't leaked all over the place), the stuff at the bottom may still be okay.
From the phrasing of the question, you have considerable amounts of meat. I'd aim for cooking the meat in ways that you can refreeze it but portion it to use it in multiple ways so you don't get tired of it.
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