I came home from the grocery store last night to find my refrigerator and freezer warmer than usual. I hoped against hope that the dials had gotten accidentally turned or the doors were left a bit open, but no, it needs the repair guy to come, it seems. Now I have a fridge stuffed with perishables that are somewhat cooled, but definitely not as cold as they ought to be. I hate to waste food, but I don’t much want a case of food poisoning either. Been there, done that, and never want to do it again. I’m guessing the juice and fruit, jam and mustard and such will probably be okay till Mon, and I’ve borrowed a mini-fridge from a very nice neighbor. Can I save the meat, cheese, dairy, eggs and mayo by moving them to that, or should I throw them out after 24 hours of less than optimal cooling?
Cheese doesn’t go bad–hell, they leave the stuff sitting around sometimes for years unrefrigerated to age it. Eggs should keep pretty well if the shells are intact–they are naturally protected against bacterial intrusion and they are pasteurized at the packaging plant to kill off any endemic nasties like salmonella. Contrary to popular belief, mayo doesn’t spoil readily. Meat should be fine as long as it hasn’t been sitting out at room temp for hours; there wasn’t likely enough time for pathogens to start growing and producing large amounts of toxins, and thorough cooking will kill any nasties which did manage to start growing. That leaves the dairy. I’d be inclined to toss that if “not as cold as it should be” means “pretty warm.”
When my fridge went bad I bought a 15 pound block of dry ice from the local distributor, and stuck it in the freezer.
That kept the frozen stuff frozen, and the fridge stuff cool.
The 15 pounds was enough for 3 days, and only cost $12.00.
Check your phonebook, there’s probably someone in town that sells dry ice.
“Saving” even $100 worth of meat that’s been incubating in a broken-down and warm fridge is poor savings if you spend the next three days praying to the porcelain god after a round of food poisoning. :eek:
I’ve had this happen twice to me. When in doubt, seriously, throw it out judiciously. The mustard is fine. The cheese is fine. The eggs are probably fine. The meat, throw out. Veggies that look fine are fine. Leftovers, throw out. Condiments are fine.
Your freezer is probably a total wash if it got anything less than completely frozen - not necessarily unsafe, but grossified.
ETA - mayo is actually fairly acidic and should be fine.
[Dirty Harry the food cop]
I know what you are thinking, was that fridge too warm for 5 hours or only 4? Well in all the excitement, I kinda forgot myself, but seeing how this is botulism the most powerful toxin in the world. You gotta ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well do ya?
[/DHtFC]
As an aside, it’s possible that the fridge needs to be repaired/replaced, but a common cause of loss of cooling is the buildup of dust on the coils or clogging the air intake. Pull it out from the wall and you’ll likely see what I mean. Qucik and easy fix, although it may take 24 hours for the fridge/freezer to get back to temperature.
When it happened to me the thermostat needed to be replaced - an inexpensive fix. We could keep it running, we found out, if we opened up the panel int he back of the freezer part and deiced it with a hair dryer.
Sometimes it’s the defrosting unit. Look in the back of the freezer and see if there’s a heavy buildup of ice. If so, it may be keeping the fan from running. If so, do the hair dryer trick (keeping the hairdryer well away from any meltable plastic). If the condition reoccurs, you’ll probably need the thermostat or defrost element replaced.