Freezer Question

The freezer containing the dogs raw food is located in the garage. Early yesterday morning the power to the garage decided it was going to trip the fuse box out so we've had to isolate the power to it.

The freezer is probably half stocked (I took a DAF delivery the day before, typical!) so how long will the freezer keep the food frozen, providing I dont keep opening it? My Dad cant get round to fixing it until the weekend, should it be ok until then?

Someone switched off the dog food freezer without me realising and it must have been off a day or two - binned the human food that had become soggy but the meat was all still pretty solid because it was all packed together (our food goes in a side compartment). The recent delivery could help in that a large volume of frozen meat will keep itself cooler than just a few blocks (though obviously more to go to waste if it does go off! )
It might be alright until Saturday morning but I wouldn't open it at all if you can avoid it. If you really need food out then grab enough to last until Saturday so you only have to open it the once. The cold weather might help a little too.
Wonder if it might be worth packing out the empty half with scrunched up newspaper (fill up carrier bags then stuff the carrier bags in)?

Just googling now and one suggestion is putting dry ice in the freezer when the power is out, not sure if that's very practical/a bit OTT though!

In this weather I would not be concerned.

Yeah, the newspaper might be a handy tip as a couple of shelves at the top are empty.

It's a pity we havent got one of those outside sockets otherwise I could run an extension, the other option is to bring the freezer into the kitchen but I really dont want to do that!

What a pain in the backside!

Yeah, thankfully it isnt summer otherwise I would be worried!

Filling a part empty freezer with scrunched newspaper or cardboard boxes [even empty ones will take up space] - or old clothes - anything - will help keep the freezer at the correct cold temperature.

As the power is off, as suggested do not open the freezer unless absolutely necessary, and cover it with as many blankets as you have. Obviously you would have to make sure you did not cover any motor/cooling element if the freezer was running, but covering a freezer in an outside place during the winter is never a bad idea.

Even with no power, if a freezer is not opened the contents should stay frozen for at least 72 hours.

If food has started to defrost, the rules are as follows:

Defrosted ice-cream must be chucked.

Bread and cake [without any cream] can be safely re-frozen. Cake with cream must be chucked.

Uncooked meat or fish which is still 2/3rds frozen can safely be re-frozen. If it is totally thawed then it is safe to cook and re-freeze, but is not safe to re-freeze uncooked.

Defrosted vegetables can be re-frozen uncooked but they will lose colour and be soggier than normal once cooked.

Things like bought in frozen beefburgers, ready meals, fish fingers, sausage rolls etc are safe to eat if cooked but are not safe to re-freeze even when cooked.

Thanks for that Malka.

It's only the dogs food in there, nothing intended for our consumption gets put in it.

Think I shall have to go and have a look, see how everything is doing in there. We have plenty of newspapers so it shouldnt take long to fill the empty spaces.

OK - do not open the freezer until you have all the newspaper ready to fill it. You do not need to scrunch the newspaper up tightly - loosely will do. Then unplug the freezer, if you have not already done so, and cover it with as many blankets you can spare. You can always put scrungled newspaper inbetween two blankets to make a sort of duvet, and cover the freezer with that.

Anything to insulate it as much as possible until you are able to get power back to it.

Good luck!