Sounds like a good time for a huge cookout!  I'll go ahead and invite myself.  

@Chubbs
I know that it's just one man talking here, and a uneducated man at that, but if I'm seeing the hours right, there is no way that the food was above 45 degrees in that short amount of time. Heck it would be hard pressed to go from frozen to above 45 if it was sitting on the counter. Now I am assuming that everything was initially frozen and that the freezer was still working. If that's the case, I would refreeze it and not give it a second thought. 5 hours sitting in a working freezer with the door open didn't hurt a thing. 

I would like to see a picture of what that freezer looks like. Regardless, I would find it difficult to believe it was all soft if packed together in only 8 hours. I would personally keep it all and eat it. The only exception, maybe, is what was on the door since it was wide open.  Those items I would put in the fridge and cook asap and eat - probably, unless very small and not much volume. 

But that is me....  

Chubbs said:

bgebrent said:

SGH said:

@Chubbs
I know that it's just one man talking here, and a uneducated man at that, but if I'm seeing the hours right, there is no way that the food was above 45 degrees in that short amount of time. Heck it would be hard pressed to go from frozen to above 45 if it was sitting on the counter. Now I am assuming that everything was initially frozen and that the freezer was still working. If that's the case, I would refreeze itand not give it a second thought. 5 hours sitting in a working freezer with the door open didn't hurt a thing. 

And the lier has spoken, but makes a lot of sense.  Brother Crenshaw should agree.  For completeness sake, stick your themapen into a couple smaller cuts, could prove reassuring.

I told her to use my thermapen. I am out of tone for work. She didn't report back. Just sent a smartass text and went to bed  

I bet it's all good, not like it was a hot day in 
Topeka and the door was wide open.  A lot of cold mass in there maintaining the cooler.  But I'm just a basketball wanna be hack.  I wouldn't throw out the meat.

Darby_Crenshaw said:

Cured stuff is fine likely. rest? Put in the fridge and cross your fingers, except the shrimp. Cook that tonight

perhaps a bit optimistic. But the cured stuff is fine. You don't need to refrigerate cured stuff anyway. We do so that it won't dry out and so that it maintains peak freshness. But (outside the package) a ham can hang from your ceiling for a year or so and still be safe. 

My mom (and i know fishless's mom) used to take out a roast out of the freezer and leave it on the counter and then we'd all go to school and work.

When i got home at 3 or so from elementary school there'd be a note telling me to put it in the oven at four pm, at 325 with some garlic salt and pepper

we'd eat at five or so

i only had one brother and two sisters die from food poisoning, but dad said if they died, it was only so that the bloodline would be stronger. 

Only reason i would 't refreeze is because of the cell damage in refreezing previously frozen meat, but you certainly can. Just won't be perfect. (not the shrimp though, it'll be too mushy the next time it thaws). 

Your parents adherence to Darwinism is admirable.  Glad you were of the strong stock brother!

In my opinion, it's not much different than putting it in the fridge to thaw. It was a short time. The red and cured meats are likely fine to eat or refreeze.

too late now but here's a trick I learned from Mickey. I keep this small container in the top shelf of my upright freezer that sits in the garage. It is merely water frozen first and then a couple pennies resting on top and topped with more water. In the event power went out or whatever and the pennies are at the bottom then I know there was a problem. This may have been of some help to you as well. Try it - it's cheap!

NPHuskerFL said:

Coming here for food safe temps is always such an interesting read. Facts VS Opinion....Interesting nonetheless. 

in all the years ive been here i have yet to see a post were some egger poisoned himself with their food, some of us play outside the rules, way outside the rules makes me wonder what restaurants are doing to poison their customers. i leave cooked stuffed turkey out for days, chili stays stove top til its gone etc. ive experienced food poison, just have not poisoned myself yet

it's facts and opinion, never facts versus opinion.

for it to be "versus" means a person equates the two. but  facts aren't opinions, and opinions aren't facts.  if they seem at odds, it's only because a person can't separate the two.  not our problem if that is the case.

facts? we have no facts here.  other than that the freezer was left open.  in support of that, i'd offer only an opinion: i would have no problems understanding facts if this were in my basement freezer, but it isn't.

so, i gave my opinion re my situation.

I would be poking it all with my Thermapen.  We have a no frills fridge we use for my hobby. Bought a 20 pound whole top round, was in there waiting for me to cut it up. Had a 16 pound belly in there as well. Belly was done curing, took it out and Ithe was slimey. Cut open the top round, was a bit off in color. Tossed the belly into the feed across the road but saved the beef. Other than being a bit off in color it was ok. Damn fridge was one hash tag from full cold, when I previously checked it the temperature was 36*. That day it was 49*. Turned it full cold...damn it, just realized I never bought a thermometer for it...apologies for rambling...

RRP said:

too late now but here's a trick I learned from Mickey. I keep this small container in the top shelf of my upright freezer that sits in the garage. It is merely water frozen first and then a couple pennies resting on top and topped with more water. In the event power went out or whatever and the pennies are at the bottom then I know there was a problem. This may have been of some help to you as well. Try it - it's cheap!

finding ice cream in the crisper drawer works well too i use the penny trick too

the general prohibition against refreezing isn't a safety issue unless it is being done multiple times and the time during which it is defrosted is considered against the whole "four hours between 40 and 140" thing.

the general idea not to refreeze is about quality, and cell damage from freezing twice.

it's two  separate issues, and unfortunately the recommendation to preserve quality (by not refreezing if you don't have to) has been confused with that regarding safety (four hours between 40-140)

which all means if you thawed meat in your fridge, properly, you can refreeze it as many times as you want (why you would need to, i don't know>  that meat can be thawed in your fridge, refrozen, thawed in the fridge again, refrozen....   at a certain point it's become a bag of water, after all the cell damage from the way things freeze in a home fridge (large crystals, slow freezing)

but if you thaw that meat improperly (like my mom's 1970s-80s roast beef method), on the counter.... well, not a good idea to refreeze.  because you'd probably thaw it the same way again, on the counter top , and add the number of hours it spent twixt 40/140 to those of the previous thawing