Due to a fuck-up, my refrigerator has been unplugged for about 24 hours. I just plugged it back in now. I was wondering how much food I'll have to throw away. I feel like most of the stuff in the fridge would have been able to keep at what must've been marginally below room temperature (if just for one day) but I'm still hesitant. As for the stuff in the freezer, I know there's a rule of thumb to never refreeze anything that's thawed, but I went grocery shopping yesterday, so the meat that was in there was never frozen to begin with. Here's some key items:
Fridge: Milk, eggs, butter, deli meats and cheeses, strawberries, blueberries, yogurt
Freezer: Various meats, frozen pirogi, mixed chopped vegetables, onion rings, a frozen pizza
What do I have to toss? Or will I be mostly fine fine?
Your food should be fine, especially if you kept the refrigerator door closed. I'm guessing that's the case if you didn't notice it was unplugged for 24 hours.
>>7532751
I presume it hasn't been opened at all, or you would have noticed the light wasn't working. As long as it was cold when it went off, everything should be fine.
>>7532761
>>7532760
Fuck. I think that I might have opened it two times in this 24-hour period: once after dinner to get something to drink and put food away, and once this morning to get some water. I opened my freezer twice to get some booze out, and put booze back in after going to a friend's.
Fun fact, the whole reason I unplugged it was because I needed to change the lightbulb. But I had gotten the wrong one, so there was no light in the fridge for this time.
>>7532766
Why would you unplug it to change the lightbulb?
Do you not have a fridge thermometer?
Most things should be fine. Stuff you're not sure about use your eyes and nose. If it seems iffy it's not worth risking.
My fan got iced over (or something) during Christmas and I ended tossing half my fridge. It was sad, but also refreshing.
>>7532795
Because the LAST time I tried changing the lightbulb, it sparked and shit and gave me a solid spook. Lightbulb got fucked, too.
>>7532751
If it wasn't hot as shit in your house, all your food should be fine. The only thing I can think of that could go off in 24 hours is raw meat. The next most likely thing to go bad is the milk. And you'll know when it does. All the frozen stuff was still cold, right? Then it's fine. Everything else in the refrigerator could sit on the counter for a day and still be perfectly safe to eat.
>>7532827
>Everything else in the refrigerator could sit on the counter for a day and still be perfectly safe to eat.
Retard no
Modern people's guts aren't as weak as you think.
We're spoiled by a surplus of food but when the standard is "100% safe" you'll often find that eating food past that 2 hour mark is actually totally fine. Let that leftover pizza sit all night long, it's completely fine.
>>7533004
i agree to some extent, but night old pizza is trash
Frozen food is the least likely to be negatively impacted by a failing freezer, because there are virtually no pathogens that are active below -2°C, whereas the food is stored at -18°C or below, primarily for quality.
Opening the door has no effect on anything, air only stores 1/4000th of the heat energy of water.
>>7532751
Deli meats are the only risky item from the fridge. Everything else keeps quite well at room temp, and you will easily be able to tell if the milk or yoghurt has gone off.
Assuming the pizza/pierogi stayed frozen, the "various meats" are the only risky items in the freezer. Rely on the expiration date as if it was refrigerated, not frozen - especially if it includes chicken or seafood.
>>7532980
absolutely yes.
americans are way too paranoid about keeping things cold
>>7532751
If it smells fine it's edible, if you live in a really warm and humid place, it might not.
>>7532809
>find button for the light
>tape it down to keep the light off
Are you literally retarded?
A lot of that is not even considered refrigerator food anywhere but the US.
Most notably the butter and eggs.
I don't know what the fuck is wrong with us that we think everything needs to be refrigerated.
Not ranting at you OP, just annoyed in general with how far we as Americans have fallen from basically any knowledge of the things we eat.
>>7535267
isnt the egg thing the fact that there are laws meaning eggs need to be washed in the us so they lose a protective layer and need to be refrigerated? here in europe its the opposite and washing eggs is banned by the EU so we can keep them at room temp
>>7535323
Yes. But washed eggs can last on the counter for at least a few days. Realistically, a week or two if they were fresh. I do it all the time. You know when eggs go bad, just like you know when dairy goes bad, or fruit goes bad. You see it looks rotten, it smells rotten. You can even taste these things if you're not a wiener. You won't get sick or die. You'll just taste that it tastes bad, and you don't eat it. Even if you did eat it, you wouldn't get sick or die. The only thing you don't fuck around with is raw meat.
>>7535267
I don't get it either. I'm an American, and I think most of them are absolute morons about this stuff. They're fucking afraid of food. Evil spoiled food that will rape and kill them while they sleep. It must be thrown away before the sell by date. Most of them buy more than they need, and throw away half of it before that arbitrary expiration date. I have never gotten sick from less than freshly bought food. If something passes the sight and smell tests, then it fails the taste test, the worst that has happened was I spit it out and threw it away.
>>7537407
The only problem is that foodborne illness is still very common, even with all the caution
Leave it to a cu/ck/ to buy the wrong kind of refridgerator lightbulb
