Freezer defrosted, advice please.

sniff test. I look after a house abroad that often has power cuts we know nothing about. The icecream regularly defrosts and refreezes. the owners happily eat it - no deaths in over 20 yrs.

If it’s not been 12 hours it’ll be fine. After that ... cook it.

The fuller the freezer the more likely it is to remain cold. I’ve done the same once and just refroze it all. Can’t remember if it was winter or summer though. We lived.

All good advice above. I think frozen food probably partially defrosts more than once on its way to us anyway.
During re-stocking in supermarkets for example

I once inadvertently didn’t completely close the door of my freezer overnight. The thermometer I keep at the front registered 6 degrees and goods at the front were still very cold and those at the back were still frozen but there was a lot of frost which I brushed off and promptly shut the door and turned up to maximum. I don’t eat ice cream so no problem there.

Thanks Elenkalu, there was only some tuna steaks and prawns and she's going to cook them today.
No icecream, it was mainly meat and some veg.

You can refreeze anything,except fish and ice Cream ,this told to me by someone who owned a freezer shop.

Good idea putting duct tape over the plug switches and labelling the plug 'freezer', I will do that myself and pass on the brilliant Gransnet advice to my daughter.
Thanks again everyone!

A couple of years ago my power went off while I was on holiday. It was still off when I got home and looking at what had recorded from the TV I knew it had been off about six days so everything had to go. My excess on the insurance meant I couldn't claim for anything and as both freezers were uprights, the leakage into the horrible 'flowtex' carpet smelt terrible. After soaking up the worst with old towels I had to keep the back door open during the day for quite a while to dry everything out and get rid of the smell! In the end I never put one of the freezers back on as I realised I was storing stuff I'd long since forgotten, and lots of old bread and other low value stuff. I now shop more carefully and plan better and I must have saved a fortune in electricity by only having the fridge freezer on and not the small stand alone freezer.
Recently I accidentally left the door ajar overnight but I shut it as soon as I noticed and although things were a bit soft they hadn't completely thawed so I kept everything and so far so good - no illness, just slightly altered texture in the re-frozen icecreams, all gone now though!

I have written on all my plugs in black permanent marker so it clearly says “freezer”. My mum has done the same as she has a lot of multiple plugs.

To help stop people turning switches off I always put a piece of sticky tape over the switch, press it down so that the switch cannot be pressed off. Easily removed when needed.
An elderly lady I helped out was very pleased when I suggested she did the same as her husband ,who had early start of dementia, would go around turning switches off - twice he did it to the freezer.

I would advise her to be careful with the fish - it's probably better to throw it out. Meat that has defrozen must be cooked before re-freezing. Frozen vegetables will probably be quite all right if they are frozen again.

The someone who turned off the freezer needs to be prevented from doing so again. A piece of duct tape over the plug will prevent it being pulled out by mistake, and a piece over the on/off switch if there is one, should do the same.

What an excellent idea Twopence ??

If you have a power cut keep the fridge/freezer door closed and throw a duvet over it, if you think it is likely to be off for long.

I'd bin the lot. Better safe than sorry.
Claim on insurance.

Good idea Twopence

Tip for the future - freeze a small pot of water then put a coin on top. If power goes off and water melts completely the coin will sink to the bottom. If the freezer partially defrosts then freezes again, as with a power cut, the coin will be part way down the pot of water so you can judge whether the food will be spoiled. Useful if you go on holiday and you are unaware there has been a power cut in your absence. Hope this explanation makes sense.

I had this problem the other day, only I had actually left the door slightly ajar for what must have been at least 24hrs and everything was just a soggy mess, had to bin the lot. Rang my home insurance and there is a £100 excess on freezer contents so didn't bother. It's now had a good clean and as I was thinking of changing to a combined, frost free fridge freezer have not yet refilled it.

It happened to me. When I discovered it bread for instance was a bit flexible but still very cold. I used the boost button to freeze as fast as possible and no-one in he family was any the wiser or got food poisoning.

My neighbour lived in Africa for several years and said their freezer often went off in the power cuts; she said that they just left it to re-freeze and no-one ever got food poisoning.
Depends on how long the power was off - has everything completely defrosted? If not, keep the door closed until it re-freezes.
If it is a total loss, claim on the house insurance.

Thanks Farmor15, the food was still very cold and we think freezer can't have been off more than about 12 hours, the socket is in a cupboard on a double socket with the dishwasher so we can't understand how it was switched off, she's had guests this weekend and I wonder is one of them (a man) has switched it off 'being helpful' . What is it with men and their switching every plug off all the time? I stay with friends and one husband literally follows me around switching off at the plug everything I've used, drives me mad. Any way I digress.
Reassurance from our resident Gransnet microbiologist (retired) is very welcome. I will pass on to my daughter who by the way, thinks all us wise Grans are great!

As resident Gransnet microbiologist (retired), I agree with all the others who say that everything should be fine, as it takes a long time for defrosting and unless temperature had been above 4 degrees for about 24 hours, no microbes will have grown.

Thanks Elegran for the reassurance that all will be well.
She's keeping everything, apart from some Turkey Mince which she's giving to me to boil up for the dog.
Dog will be happy!?

That's happened to me a few times in the past. As long as the freezer wasn't off for more than a ?day or 2 everything was ok to refreeze. Except for ice cream, which separates.

Thanks Monica and Pantglas, we've come to that decision between us that as the food was all still very cold, even slightly frozen, then it will be fine.
Although, she's cooking the prawns today, just to be on the safe side and when they h ave the Tuna Steaks to cook through, instead of leaving pink as she usually does.
Thanks dragonfly, I know where you're coming from with the freezer struggling to get down to -18 but as you say, yours is a big freezer, she just has three drawers.
Whew! Thanks for all your help!