Can I refreeze fruits and veggies?

I got a phone call around noon today from my apartment manager. Apparently some people were supposed to be replacing a refrigerator in the apartment across the hall and mistakenly started to bring it here. They completely emptied my fridge and freezer before knowing they'd made a mistake. My apartment manager stated that she tried to put everything back in, but if I lost any food due to this, they would reimburse me. I said that was fine. However, I returned home to a mess! The entryway rug and all my shoes (I have a lot) were scattered in the living room and my fridge and freezer, which I had spent ages organizing yesterday since I had so much leftover food from a glider gathering I had on Saturday, was a total disaster. Not only that, but I found some of the fruits and veggies that I had frozen for the gliders in their sealed ziploc bags, completely thawed, but still cold, on my counter. My question is, can I refreeze them? Or should I tally up the price of the cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, and frozen mixed veggies that were left out and ask to be reimbursed?

Truth is, yes, you can refreeze them IF you know how long they were sitting out. Not knowing, I don't know if I would chance it. ????

There was JUST an article about this on Yahoo. Here ya go:
http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/food/6-myths-about-freezing-food-2574054/

Ugh...they were out of the freezer for at least 4 hours. Think I should toss them?

anything meat, or pre-cooked you should toss. the max time alotted for restaurants and other food vendors to keep things in the "danger zone", which is 41-140 degrees is 4 hours this includes all of the time the food is at the warehouse where the food is processed, and packedged, shipped and stored, at the the place you get the food and storing at your place. but that is just a rule for restaurants because we get to be liable if you ate a meal at home that was not cooked properly, then came to my place of busissness, ate a properly prepared meal and got sick two days later, because its never the untrained persons fault (sorry for rant)

fruits and vegetables are okay to have out longer because they do not spoiled as quickly, (the only reason we feel the need to keep fruits and veg frozen of refrigerated is they keep much longer than out in the open) nor do they have the same food bourne illness issues that meats have (or atleast they used to not have them).

a good rule of thumb is that you can only freeze things twice, but it is not recommended, the quality is reduced when thawed and refrozen.

im sure i left something out, but if you ask i bet i have, just for you, a good answer!


(oh and from what i have learned in school, that artical is very spot on with the exception of the limits thing. but i have nothing to back it up, just personal experience.)

I have a food savor that I use ALL the time. When I go to the Farmer's Market, I stock up on fruits and veggies...chop and flash freeze them on a tray, then food savor them. (in multiple portions) I can't say enough good things about using a food savor. It costs a little money to buy (obviously lol) but you save so much in the long run. My freezer is like a food savor haven most of the time. Even fruit/veggie relishes I'll freeze into ice cube trays, then once frozen, food savor into portions.