O.K. to refeeze?

[Oct.1]

My freezer is becoming human. It took a dump.
I keep most of my wild game in this one.
Last night I found everything completely thawed out. (Not even icy.)
The temp. was still about 40 deg. The bags of ice I keep in there in case of a power outage haden't melted fully yet.
I repaired the freezer last night and everything is refroze again.
I have heard both ways on this topic.
Had vension, bear,turkey,fish and elk.
Nothing looked bad or smelled bad.
Question is: Is it o.k. to eat after refreezing, or should I pitch it?
Be honest now, I sure hate to have to throw it away.

[Salmonsmoker]

Oct. 1

First, let me clarify - I can not advise you as to what to do. What I can do is to tell you what we did in a similar situation.

We had a freezer full of food that thawed durng a move when we had a 2 day enroute delay. After arriving at our new home, we discovered the problem. We immediately refroze everything. Over the next seveal months we ate all of the frozen foods from that freezer with no ill effects. In some cases (where the contents of the package had completely thawed and remained so for some time) we had to trim the outside layer while the meat was still frozen.

You will need to look at each package as you prepare to use it. If the color of the meat is bright red - if the meat smells fresh then it is probably OK. If there is any odor or darkened color, trim that part away. Inside the package, there still MAY be good meat.

Any time during which frozen food is thawed, bacteria can grow. If there is any question, it is better to err on the side of over-caution than to suffer food poisioning.

Hope this helps & keep us posted on your results.

ss

[Oct.1]

Thanks, S.S.
My Dad told me the same thing. He said he has refrozen meat just because it wouldn't be used right away.
However my Mother would argue this with him till no end.
Well I guess I married a women like my Mother.
The trash man will pick it up in a couple of hours.
Just have to hunt more often to replace it.

Oct.1

[Hope]

Heres my advice, throw it out just incase. ?? I hate to waste. My husband went elk hunting - we had tons of elk meat - our freezer died on us too. We called a local meat market, they said its very dangerous to eat refrozen meat. Especially if you have kids, you might want to be more safe than sorry. Good luck! :)

[Salmonsmoker]

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Salmonsmoker