If the food itself was not cold, at fridge temps of 40 or below, you need to toss it all. Reheating will not guarantee you don't get food poisoning.
Just because you eat it today and don't get sick doesn't mean anything. Some food borne illnesses can take weeks to incubate in your gut.

You cannot go by taste or smell to detect unsafe levels of bacteria. If you notice those things, the food has been bad for a while already.

I would also especially throw condiments out--they can get yucky pretty fast.

Dang--I'm sorry you have to deal with this!

I would also toss the stirfry and the burger. Not a big deal BUT on the other hand, it depend on WHEN, how long ago did your frig die? what was the temperature of the foods in there when you found out?

When in doubt, THROW it out. My motto and has been for years. Why take a chance with your or others health.

Thank you, everyone!

I forgot the second step of posting last night. This was my reply to Lindalou:

No, it was not cold at all. Now I am hoping I don't get sick from what I already ate before I noticed the fridge problem. OR the swig of spoiled carrot juice that alerted me.

Luckily there is very little immediately-perishable food in that fridge -- it is mostly seeds, lotions, produce, cheese, stuff like that. Oh, dang, the figs are probably moldy.

>Some food borne illnesses can take weeks to incubate in your gut.

Can you tell me more about these, so I know what to watch out for? Or just names and I can google :).

--

After I went to bed, I remembered I had also eaten fish oil and clam juice out of there. Scary!

I had some kind of histamine response last night -- burning pain all over-- which decreased some when I took a prescription dose anti-inflammatory. It's still with me now, though. The pain kept me awake most of the night. It's like what I get when I eat gluten, but without the other symptoms. But there was no gluten.

My immune system just does not like something in that stew of microbial toxins I ingested with my meals yesterday :/. No barfing or other GI stuff though, which I guess is good.

Today's project: Throw out, clean out, move frozen foods out, thaw fridge overnight and see if that cures it or if I need a new fridge.

If the freezer is still working, there is a good chance that your system just iced up or, possibly, the fan that disperses the cold air from the freezer section to fridge just needs to be replaced. We have replaced fans in 2 fridges in the past 8 years. They are still working. I'll never get that 100% fridge unit I want!

Thanks, psittacinejungle!

The fan works fine. I left it open overnight to try to thaw any ice.

Now cold air does go into the fridge compartment, though I wonder if it could be more. The fridge gets sort of cold, but not very. After having it on its highest setting for 3 hours (small fridge), it was about 42 degrees. It used to freeze stuff when NOT on high.

I spent a fruitless couple of hours trying to locate its defrost timer, as a troubleshooting website advised me. And then trying to find a manual for this particular model online. Sigh.

I sat down and thought about it, and thought, 'It's getting somewhat cold. It's unlikely that it has TWO problems, ice plus something else.' (William of Occam is my friend :).

So I am leaving it open for another night or two to see if it thaws more, and then I am thinking to leave it ON overnight, to see if it is just slow to get down to temperature. If neither of those work then, yeah, I guess it does have two problems.

Suggestions are VERY welcome!

I agree that complete thawing may take longer than your initial try. Also, fridges take a long time to cool and become temperature stable. When setting one up initially, I believe 24 hours is recommended. I think your plan is a good one. Good luck!

>When setting one up initially, I believe 24 hours is recommended.

Oh, ok! The troubleshooting guide was talking about two hours, but maybe they did not mean fully cold. It has been a looooong time since I started with scratch with a fridge. I don't remember how long this one took when I first got it.

Last night was cold (ambient temp) so I think I should let it warm for another 24 just to be sure.

Thanks for your help in thinking through this :).

Any time a frig or freezer is moved and possibly tipped, place in correct place and leave alone for 24 hours, then plug in. Failure can damage the unit.

Thank you, myfam :). I have not moved this one.

I turned it on this morning. It's now down to 52 degrees -- started at 61.