alysten | Epic failure: Beef

I usually post the good things, successful things and what I think are neato things. But every once in a while, I need to post about the epic failures. And this is one of those posts.
Food safety rule #1: You have a 4 hour window to get food to the safe zone before bad things(bacteria) start to happen.
Food safety rule #2: Food must be at or below 41° or at or above 140° to be considered 'safe'
Food safety rule #3: If you put hot food into your refrigerator, it can raise the internal temperature to the danger zone.
Food safety rule #4: Touch everything.

I cooked beef this weekend. Pot roast style beef for Yule. It was tasty, happy goodness. I let it cool, covered on the counter for an hour before bagging and refrigerating the meat. All was well.

When I have a fridge stocked full of food, I go through a check in the morning and when I come home. Just to make sure all the food is stored properly. At the AM touch test, everything felt cool. When I got home for the PM touch test... disaster. All of the beef and one ham were touch test 'warm'. I pulled out one bag and a thermometer. 50°. Pulled out the rest of the bags same deal. One was even as high as 63°. I lost 35lbs of beef, 4lbs of ham. I then tested the rest of the refrigerator, and the other foods were fine. Almost too cold.

I think the problem was the fridge not closing properly at the bottom. I have since replaced the meat and will be cooking it off tomorrow. It is a pain because I had to throw out all that food. On the flip side... I know I will not be making people sick. Feast will be yummy and safe. And that is all that matters.