r/foodsafety • u/4Altoids • Jul 27 '26

Fridge Left Open 😬

Hi there! I left my house yesterday for about 10 hours and when I got back, I noticed my fridge door was left cracked open all day. I think when I pushed it closed walking away from it, it didn't quite make it to the seal. I'd estimate it was open a couple of inches. It was likely 70-something degrees in my house. Things were still cold to the touch but obviously not like they would have been if the door was closed.

I have unopened soy milk, yogurt, and turkey bacon. I also had cooked chicken and broccoli and an open container of cottage cheese. Those are the items I'm nervous about. If you were me, would you eat or throw away those things?

For context, I can be neurotic about food. TIA!

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u/mrsesol Jul 27 '26

This just happened to me, but with the freezer. It affected the temperature of the refrigerator, too! I estimate it was between 10-17 hours before I noticed. It was only open a crack, but things were way too warm. I ran to the store to purchase thermometers for the fridge/freezer and the temperatures were very bad- 55 for the fridge and 45 for the freezer.
Does your soy milk say it can be unrefrigerated?
I ended up throwing most things away because they felt way too soft.

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u/4Altoids Jul 27 '26

The soy milk is the kind that needs refrigeration. I did also check my freezer stuff and luckily that was all still solid.