Thermometer says 30 degrees and has for about a week. The corn on the bottom shelf looked terrible and was pitched. Most of the meat was thawed but looks ok, which I plan to cook and refreeze. Green chili's, some were partially thawed some completely thawed. Should we refreeze? Are they ok to eat? Color is good on them.
The chest freezer is going out.
freezing
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Best Answer
Derobert's inference that your freezer is fully broken is almost certainly correct. 30 F would be about the temperature you would expect inside as the frozen food thaws.
So for some period of time, what you have had, in effect, is a refrigerator, not a freezer.
The question is, for each individual food in the freezer, would it still be safe if held at refrigerator temperatures for a full week.
You can get good estimates for many foods from these sites:
I would discard foods that are beyond their good life, or foods that would not be palatable when frozen, thawed, and then refrozen.
In the specific case of the green chilis (I am guessing whole), Still Tasty says about one week, so you are on the border. You should use or re-freeze them quite quickly. On the other hand, they have already sat for a week, and suffered the degradation from one freezing cycle. As chilis are not normally terribly expensive, it may not be worth keeping them.