Freezer door left open overnight

Scam said:
I was wondering that too :p

Seriously though, I wouldn't refreeze meat etc. Just cook it all. Then again it sounds like the OP has already refrozen stuff so I'd chuck it. Putting all the "alpha-ness" aside, food poisoning is pretty grim and not worth it to save £20 worth of food.
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You're not going to get food poisoning from refreezing meat. It just makes the meat a bit worse in quality due to multiple cycles of ice crystal formation that damages cell walls and degrade texture of meat.

Not understanding how a freezer works is a bit weird though. This is just a normal mundane thing I'd expect most people to have some understanding of.
 
Bassmansam said:
Yeah at home with my parents, why would I know about freezers?
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Because it's common sense, there's a door to keep the cold inside, you leave the door open, it warms up because it's trying to cool the entire world.

Nothing to do with not knowing about freezers.
 
spoffle said:
You're not going to get food poisoning from refreezing meat. It just makes the meat a bit worse in quality due to multiple cycles of ice crystal formation that damages cell walls and degrade texture of meat.
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I'm not sure you're correct here to be honest. Refreezing the meat isn't the danger, it's whether or not the meat ends up staying around the 'danger' temperatures that allow potentially harmful bacteria to form. The type that can make you ill. That's why we have fridges and freezers and don't store our meat at room temperature.
 
Scam said:
I'm not sure you're correct here to be honest. Refreezing the meat isn't the danger, it's whether or not the meat ends up staying around the 'danger' temperatures that allow potentially harmful bacteria to form. The type that can make you ill. That's why we have fridges and freezers and don't store our meat at room temperature.
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I think it's unlikely to have warmed so much that it went into the region if temperatures that allowed bacterial growth. There'd be a fairly substantial puddle at the foot of the freezer in such a case.
 
Bassmansam said:
Sorry that I don't have experience of leaving freezer doors open ?
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I don't either. But I know basic food hygiene and I know what a freezer is and how it works fundamentally.

The majority of frozen food tends to have already been cooked or at least precooked and requires either re-heating or finishing off just to make sure that if anything did go wrong that process would kill the bacteria.

For example when you buy a frozen pizza the base has already been cooked or at least pre-cooked. It's not for example frozen dough. Same goes for most frozen pies. The inside of the pie will have already been cooked it's just the pastry on the outside that is uncooked.

You obviously don't do any real cooking at all. If you learned how to cook from scratch you would soon figure out that the questions you're asking are basic common knowledge. So I would suggest a basic home economics course off youtube.
 
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Bassmansam said:
@Psycho Sonny thanks , will have a look into the youtube stuff. Got to admit i have next to no knowlege of food hygiene ect.
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It could save your life. Food poisoning isn't fun.

For example rice is a big risk unless you know how it should be handled. When cooked it should be cooled down as quick as possible. Usually by spreading it out as thin as possible then refrigerated if it's going to be consumed later. It should then be reheated to a high temperature when ready for consumption.

Then their is all sorts of rules for handling, cutting and storing raw meats and cooked meats.

How long food should be kept in a freezer, etc. What temperature a fridge should be and why.

This should all be general knowledge for anyone who cooks food. I wouldn't expect a 8 year old to know it but I would a 16 year old. Also cooking fresh food from scratch will undoubtedly be better for you in terms of your health and enjoyment of the food. It's a learning process and experimentation so don't be put off if something goes wrong and ends up in the bin.
 
Scam said:
I'm not sure you're correct here to be honest. Refreezing the meat isn't the danger, it's whether or not the meat ends up staying around the 'danger' temperatures that allow potentially harmful bacteria to form. The type that can make you ill. That's why we have fridges and freezers and don't store our meat at room temperature.
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I was just about to bring this up after reading people saying just refreeze it. Was under the impression that once the meat has reached room-temps it's no longer safe to refreeze.

By the sounds of what the OP did, leaving your freezer ajar may have caused it to overwork, and the food may have slowly started to defrost, but should probably be OK. I imagine your electric bill might have shot up a bit though.
 
Psycho Sonny said:
For example rice is a big risk unless you know how it should be handled. When cooked it should be cooled down as quick as possible. Usually by spreading it out as thin as possible then refrigerated if it's going to be consumed later.
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Is that only the case if saving it for later? It doesn't make logical sense to cook the rice, and then cool it down as quick as possible if you plan to eat it straight away. I was at least aware that if you're re-heating rice, it needs to be piping hot.
 
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