What are the consequences of leaving the fridge door cracked open overnight?
My girlfriend accidentally didn't close the fridge properly and left it open 2 inches all night (more than 8 hours). I had a lot of raw chicken breast and raw salmon in there. Is it still edible? When I touched the meat, it was slightly colder than room temperature (21 C).
The back part of the meat was still a bit cold though because it was closer to the back of the fridge.
Is it edible?
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If the food had reached a temperature of 21 C for an unknown amount of time, you should definitely discard it.
See:
How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat?
As a more general rule, there really is no way to provide a definitive answer; it depends on your specific refrigerator, the cooling power it has, how much air was able to move through the gap, and how much mass was inside the refrigerator to provide a thermal buffer
If you had a refrigerator thermometer and looked at what temperature the interior rose to, if it was below 40 F you are good.
If you don't have a thermometer, you don't know exactly what happened inside.
You must assess how much tolerance for risk you have.
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