Accidentally defrosted freezer overnight!

Personally I wouldn't throw anything away. It may have defrosted, but I doubt it was defrosted long enough to even begin to go off and if it is in the freezer it will be well wrapped. The fact that the outside items are soft doesn't mean everything has defrosted

If you are worried, immediately cook any meat thoroughly; spend the day making casseroles and stews. Long slow cooking will kill off any organisms in the unlikely chance that they have developed.

Remember the official rules are rules of perfection and are done for the protection of the public in public catering situations.

I now await the reactions of horror from everyone else to my suggestions.

I agree, M0nica. The ice cream may have to go but I wouldn't chuck anything else.

That happened a few times with one of our freezers, faulty closure system, but it only contained bread and ice cream. The bread was ok but the ice cream had separated.
Applesauce should definitely be ok, fresh fruit - won't do harm even if a bit 'off'.
I agree with M0nica about meat.

Personally I would chuck the ice-cream and cook the meat immediately or chuck it - what's the point of risking food poisoning?

Thanks to everyone. I've chucked out the ice cream and bread and some of the meat .
Anything which looked dubious and of indeterminate origin has gone. There's a smell of meat cooking. I'm veggie so we may have to invite someone in to help to eat it

Are you covered on your household insurance for the value of food in the freeze in the event of accidental defrost ?

Vegetables can be made into soup which can then be safely frozen for future use. I'd be inclined to ditch any fish or fish products.

I have often noticed on food items," this product has been previously frozen and may safely be frozen again".
I would cook and taste.

I wouldn't chuck anything but the ice cream. Certainly not the bread and, as MOnica says, meat is unlikely to have defrosted completely. If there was anything like prawns I probably wouldn't risk it.

We are not insured but I don't think it had much in it of high value. The bread would have been going stale when it was first frozen probably. I'm not really a freezer user as I live near shops.
Soup is a good idea and fruit crumble.

I assume it was quite a small freezer then?

use your instincts - 99% of stuff can be refrozen without a problem - I look after a house in france that suffers from numerous power cuts - icecream regularly defrosts and refreezes - no-one has suffered in 20 years. So long as you reheat items to a sensible temperature (Google food safety temps) you will be fine. Smell/ taste test will tell you most of what you need to know.

It's an upright freezer with 5 drawers. It's kept inside a cupboard and has an alarm when the door is left open. Despite this it wasn't noticed for a long time.

Thanks for the reassurance. I wouldn't really want to poison anybody. At least nobody who is likely to come to dinner.

Happened to me last week, I chucked ice cream, some very mushy veg and prawns. Used up some smoked fish and previously cooked beef chilli with no ill effects at all. Uncooked meat/chicken was still solid enough for me not to to be worried about it.