Can I re-freeze food from my freezer?

Question

My kid left the freezer door open (the upright kind) and all the stuff at the front has thawed! Everything from bags of raw shrimp, ground turkey, beef...???

Answer 1

How long where the thawing and if you're not sure I would toss them because you wouldn't want to risk getting sick. Where they still partially frozen? Completely thawed? If they were not kept above food safety conditions, I would think about tossing them to be safe.

Check out the link about food safety zones.

Answer 2

Re-freeze no.  

Depending on the present temperature of the food you might be able to refrigerate it and cook it over the course of the next few days.  If it has reached room temperature then this would be a good time for a dinner party.

Answer 3

Health issues aside, the texture of your food will change if you refreeze it.  What you can do, safely, is cook the food and then refreeze it.  Since the rest of the food stayed frozen the defrosted food stayed cool enough to be safe.