Keep or toss - freezer left open

[KrisM]

Our garage freezer (part of a fridge/freezer combo) was open a few inches over night. A kid closed it and I got a text about it at lunch time. I can tell the ice cream melted enough to leak and drip. and it was clearly soft when I checked on it. I will toss the uncooked chicken strips for sure. But, frozen pizza? Think those are okay? Cooked meatballs I think should go - yes? Frozen hasbrowns? I assume the ice cream is bad at this point, but is it safe? Can I make the kid who left it open eat it? Lol.

It got cold outside overnight - we had a frost warning. And our garage is usually within about 20 deg of the outdoor temp. It was a high of 63 yesterday. So the garage was likely 40-50 deg overnight.

[jgenie]

This happened to us a couple of weeks ago. I tossed everything that had been hanging around for a while. All those ‘we’re going to eat these’ items that we never got around to eating. I touched the meals and they were still cool to the touch so I kept them. I tossed frozen fruit because it would have refrozen into a clump. I kept popsicles / ice cream on a stick and they’ve been fine albeit a little crooked. I tossed the cartons of ice cream. I figured taste would be off and if I’m going to consume the calories they better taste the best they can. My Melona popsicles were off so I tossed but my kids haven’t complained about their popsicles.

[KrisM]

Sorry it happened to you too. Everything is pretty new, except the hash browns. But there are 6 containers of ice cream I bought this week and the box of chicken from Sam's is from this week too. It's probably $150 that I spent in the past 2 weeks in there. Ugh.

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[sariana]

I’d probably keep it all. But I’m much more lax than most here. I would try to use things sooner rather than later, though.