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How much has the meat defrosted?
If it has completly thawed I would cook it all (not into meals just cook the meat) and then refreeze it. If it is a little bit thawed then you could refreeze it but it is a bit risky.
I hate when things like this happen. HTH
Registered User
its not completley thawed.
I have no idea how it got switched off, the switch is out of the kids reach
Lucy in the sky with diamonds.
Even if it is safe to refreeze, I wouldn't risk it as the quality can really be affected.
If you have a slow cooker or something, start it up and do a few casseroles, curries etc, then refreeze.
GL!
Registered User
The issue with the meat thawing is the temperature of the meat going into the "holding" temp range. That is when the bacteria that is in the meat will grow quickly. Some bacteria are killed by low and high temps, and some absolutely thrive in cold temps - eg listeria.
When cooking food, you want it to get to 75C and if you are reheating, to 60C as quickly as possible.
in your case.. the freezer would have had to get above 5C and stay above that temp for a min of 2hrs for you to be concerned about the meat.
You are perfectly safe to refreeze it. Being a deep freeze it would be around -18C and would take a while to heat up to 5C. You only loose quality in the meat if it is completely defrosted, then re-frozen.. it dries out.
hope this helps..
food standards australia is a great source to what is acceptable in kitchens.
Lucy in the sky with diamonds.
or the edges might curl up even if it didn't fully thaw. yukko!
Registered User
just wanted to say I know how you feel, the same thing happened to me about 2 weeks ago! Although in my case, the door got left open
I didnt re-freeze anything, just had a major cookup and invited people over for dinner for 2 nights, what we didnt eat the dog got!
2013 BellyBelly RAK Recipient.
Perhaps I am lazy, but I would just flick the switch back on and forget about it. I routinely bring meat back from my mothers house 2 hours away, by the time I get home it is usually a bit thawed around the edges but I just pop it back in the freezer no probs. If it was still in the cold freezer the chance of bacteria growing on the thawed parts is minimal. The biggest problem is that you might get a bit of freezer burn in the defrosted parts, but it is still fine to eat.
Registered User
we got advice from DHS (post fires) that even if the meat and stuff appeared to be in good quality, it wasn't a good idea to refreeze and eat it later, especially for those with sensitive stomachs etc
in your circs, i'd be defrosting everything properly, and doing a hell of a lot of cooking in the next couple of days. nothing that has been defrosted at all gets refrozen (and i ONLY defrost in the fridge) - it gets cooked somehow and then refrozen already cooked into a meal
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