Food in a fridge that has stayed closed should be fine for the amount of time your power was out (sounds like about 12 hours?). I'd worry about meat, but you're a vegetarian so I assume you didn't have any.
Our fridge once died to the level of thawed veggies in the freezer (probably 14-16 hours before discovery of the problem) and we didn't lose much. The meat that had been in the freezer was thawed by still cold, so I found ways to cook it. (You can't safely re-freeze meat.) I think I decided the opened quart of milk was iffy and tossed it. Everything else was fine.
Thanks. I was most concerned about the milk and the mayonnaise. I think the mayo is okay; the milk not so much. And the half of an onion got pretty icky, but I don't know whether that was because it warmed up too much, or (more likely) because it froze when the fridge to over-enthusiastic at some point before the power went out (it freezes things sometimes) and a bunch of cell walls ruptured. Mostly I was just being extremely grumpy and it was one more thing to be grumpy about.
Ah, I forgot about the possibility of mayo. If it was still cool to the touch it's probably ok; if it warmed up to something closer to room temperature I'd probably toss it (on the "toss the potato salad at the picnic after three hours" principle). But I don't do a lot with mayo myself so I'm just channeling my mother here. :-)
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Our fridge once died to the level of thawed veggies in the freezer (probably 14-16 hours before discovery of the problem) and we didn't lose much. The meat that had been in the freezer was thawed by still cold, so I found ways to cook it. (You can't safely re-freeze meat.) I think I decided the opened quart of milk was iffy and tossed it. Everything else was fine.
(no subject)
(no subject)