food: good or spoiled?

So our apartment complex turned the power to the entire building off yesterday from 8am to 9pm. They did give us notice two days prior for that time. Unfortunately by the time we had gotten the notice we had just went shopping at spent the last of our money to buy a ton of groceries for the rest of the weeks until Friday (July 26th). So our fridge is full and we are told our power is going to be out on one of the hottest days forecasted for the week for 13 hours. Honestly, I feel 13 hours is an extreme amount of time to be without power to your fridge, but not much we could've done about it.

So we got our change and bought a big bag of ice to put in the freezer to keep the frozen foods (hopefully) frozen and then turned the fridge up to max, and kept the doors closed all day. We didn't open them even once.

So the day comes and it reaches 98F inside my apartment (I'm on the 3rd floor so all the heat just rises up), and then instead of turnig the power on at 9pm like they said they would, it didn't get turned on until Midnight. I had to stay up as my boyfriend had to be up at 3am and we had no idea when it would be back on.

So the power finally comes back on just after midnight (16 hours since it was turned off) and I check the fridge, it's still somewhat cold'ish. I put a thermometer in there, but I was so exhuasted from the heat and lack of food that I can't remember if it was 18C or 28 C and that makes a huge difference. >_<

The freezer everything was completely defrosted. It was a lake in there and the food was completely soft. Obviously the chicken, chicken burrito's, ground beef, steak, etc are all goners.


*QUESTION*

My question, anyone know if the frozen pizza's would be ok? The freezer was completely defrosted.
Or in the fridge I have my doubts for the cheeses and milk. I don't know if it would be safe to eat them?

If they are all bad, well....I have some cereal (minus the milk) and ..... dog food. >_< This was the worst week for them to do this.


*edit*

Also, they have sheduled Tuesday to be another day the power is out all day from 8am to 9m, though with the idiot they have working out there I am not holding up high hopes for it coming back at 9pm. >_< Most of the food is already thrown out, and we are going to try (if it's good) to eat the rest before then. However, we will still have to have the milk and butter in the fridge. Anything else I should do to keep it cooler?

Or hell, even keep my apartment cooler? I had the windows closed for part of the day when the sun was shining in the worst, but the heat rises and it makes my apartment so stuffy we had to open the windows and crack the blinds to get a bit of a breeze. We opened them when it got cooler, but it didn't seem to help as it was stagnant outside, no wind.

What was on the frozen pizzas? Was it just cheese, or was there meat?

As far as the cheese in the fridge, I've left cheese out accidentally for a full day and ate it just fine after. I'm not dead yet.

3 are pepperoni, one is supreme. So no good?

If the cheese is good at the very least we can make some sandwiches for a few days. ....well...what about sliced deli meats?

IMO it's probably fine. I've left pizza out overnight on the counter and eaten it the next morning. These probably weren't at a warm temp for very long, and you'll cook them again later. Plus, cured meat doesn't spoil as fast, plus it probably has lots of preservatives to start.

Pizzas that have been frozen, defrosted and then refrozen may not taste that great though.

My personal method for all foods it to just use your senses. Does it smell ok? If I nibble a piece is it nice to eat? Then I'll eat it. I don't think I've ever had food poisoning.

Sliced deli meats are the one thing I would likely toss....the rest I likely would keep (obviously checking each thing individually)

I'd be most worried about the milk, myself. That stuff does not like warm temps IMO. Even if it isn't spoiled now, it will probably go bad quicker than usual.

Butter you can keep at room temperature, so don't worry about that.

The meat is probably fine, as well as the pizzas. Milk I might be concerned about, but I've let cheese sit out for a bit and it's been fine.

Ok, so pizza likely ok (though not as tastey lol), deli meats iffey, cheese should be ok (smell first), milk may be bad. OK

I just got a notice that not only will the power be off on Tuesday 8am-9pm, but also wednesday 7am-8pm. >_< ARGH I'm going to die of heat and starvation. *sigh*

Smell your milk...its pretty obvious when it goes bad Even then, there are things you can do with soured milk

And I have never lived in an apt....but is that actually legal? I understand things need to be done but that is an insane amount of time.

What can you do with sour milk?

You can cook and bake with it or make cheese (lots of cheeses are actually very easy to make)

When it smells like buttermilk or sour cream, I'll use it in baking or eggs or anything you might use a sour dairy product.

Sometimes it gets legit nasty though.

Wow! That seems so wrong for an apartment complex to do!!

I agree! I have no idea if it's actually legal, but to schedule no electricity for 13 hours is a bit much imho anyways, but to go 16 hours? I don't know how anyone else did with their food, but I imagine there's a lot of bad food. >_<

Would you need anything else to make cheese?

lol yeah, it smells sour but I don't think it smells tooo too rotten ^_^ I'll have to make a cheese with it or something.

If you google cheese from sour milk, there are many recipes