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My freezer went without power for 70 hours while we were out of town. The power was restored before we returned and refroze everything. The unit was full and did have some solid ice packs within. Is anything safe to consume in this freezer?

Glenda Hall
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    Hello and welcome! I don't know of any way we can answer this as we have no way of knowing if the temperature got into the danger zone and, if so, for how long. Please see the answers to this question, http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/34670/how-do-i-know-if-food-left-at-room-temperature-is-still-safe-to-eat, as it gives very good information about the USDA guidelines. Good luck. – Cindy Jun 24 '15 at 18:02

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If this was an upright freezer with cooling coils in the shelves, there was frost on the shelves before your trip, and after you came back there was still frost on the shelves, then you can intuit that things never got above freezing. Otherwise, there's almost nothing you could be sure of, except perhaps by pulling the plug, waiting 70 hours, and then testing the temperature.

Daniel Griscom
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  • There may be other things that let you look for melting and refreezing - for example, bags of frozen vegetables might've originally had some frost mixed in, and now have a solid chunk at the bottom. – Cascabel Jun 25 '15 at 01:39
  • Yeah, if iqf vegetables are now one solid block, that means they likely melted. – Catija Jun 25 '15 at 06:14