Can I claim for spoiled food when freezer breaks down?
When a freezer breaks down, the food inside can be worth hundreds of pounds. Whether you can claim for that loss – and from whom – depends on what caused the failure, how you respond, and what evidence you have. This guide explains your options clearly.
You may be able to claim for food lost when a freezer breaks down – either through your home contents insurance, or as a “consequential loss” against the retailer if the appliance failed due to a fault covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or the manufacturer’s guarantee. To have any realistic chance of success you must act quickly, save what you can, photograph everything, and keep receipts. Letting food spoil without evidence significantly weakens any claim.
What Is a Consequential Loss Claim?
When a faulty appliance causes you additional financial loss beyond the cost of the appliance itself, that is known as a consequential loss. Food spoiled because a freezer failed due to a manufacturing defect is a classic example.
If the freezer is under the manufacturer’s guarantee, or has failed in a way that breaches the Consumer Rights Act 2015, you may have grounds to claim the value of the lost food from the retailer – in addition to seeking a repair or replacement of the appliance itself.
Read our guide on how to save food if your freezer stops working before you do anything else. The steps you take in the first few hours matter enormously – both for preserving food and for supporting any future claim.
Your Duty to Minimise the Loss
This is the single most important point: you cannot simply let all the food spoil and then claim the full value. UK law requires you to take reasonable steps to reduce your loss. Failing to do so will significantly weaken – or invalidate – any claim you make.
- Transfer food to a neighbour’s or friend’s freezer if possible
- Use cool bags or boxes with ice to preserve perishables
- Cook and consume food that is still safe but beginning to defrost
- Refrigerate anything that cannot be kept frozen but is still edible
- Only dispose of food that is genuinely unsafe or beyond saving
The more you can demonstrate that you acted reasonably to minimise the loss, the stronger your position when making a claim.
Evidence: What You Need and Why It Matters
Claims for food loss are frequently rejected or reduced because consumers cannot demonstrate what was actually lost or prove its value. Gathering evidence immediately – before disposing of anything – is essential.
Take clear photographs of the contents of the freezer before throwing anything away. Photograph individual items, open packaging, and the overall state of the freezer. These images are your primary evidence of what was lost and its approximate volume and value.
Receipts are extremely helpful and may be essential to prove the value of the food. Supermarket loyalty card apps often hold purchase histories. Bank and card statements showing recent food shopping can also support a claim where receipts are unavailable.
Packaged foods – vacuum-sealed items, boxed goods, unopened products – are easier to retain as evidence than fresh food. Keep what you safely can without creating a health hazard. Photograph and then dispose of anything perishable that cannot be safely stored.
As you empty the freezer, create a written itemised list of everything discarded, including approximate quantities and estimated values. A contemporary written record is far more credible than a figure recalled weeks later when a claim is being assessed.
Be Realistic About What You Can Claim
Retailers and insurers will be cautious about claims for a completely full freezer of entirely spoiled food. In most cases, total loss is unlikely because freezers are opened regularly, many have temperature alarms, and a full freezer with the door kept closed can maintain safe temperatures for up to 48 hours after losing power.
Returning from a holiday to find the freezer has been off for several days. A fault that went unnoticed while the household was away. A failure with no audible alarm and a freezer kept in a utility room or garage. In these circumstances, documenting the specific situation clearly when making your claim is important.
A claim for complete loss on a frequently opened freezer in daily use will be questioned. A retailer or insurer may argue that the failure should have been noticed sooner, or that more food could have been saved with reasonable action. Partial claims with clear evidence are more credible than total loss claims without it.
Claiming Against the Retailer
If the freezer failed due to a manufacturing defect – whether under guarantee or as a breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 – the retailer is legally responsible for the appliance failure and may also be responsible for the consequential food loss it caused.
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Get the fault professionally diagnosed. A retailer will not consider a consequential loss claim without first establishing the cause of the appliance failure. You will typically need a refrigeration engineer – ideally one authorised by the manufacturer – to confirm the fault. If the failure was caused by something other than the appliance itself (for example, a faulty wall socket), the retailer is not responsible.
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Make a written claim to the retailer. Put your claim in writing, citing the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and stating that the freezer failure caused consequential food loss. Include your itemised list, photographs, and any available receipts. Set out clearly what you are seeking.
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Do not accept a refusal without challenge. Retailers sometimes refuse consequential loss claims. If the underlying appliance failure is covered by your consumer rights, a consequential loss claim is legally supportable. Seek advice from Citizens Advice if a retailer refuses a valid claim. See our guide: Consumer Rights Act and faulty appliances.
What If the Freezer Is Out of Guarantee?
An expired manufacturer’s guarantee does not automatically end your rights. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, you have up to six years from the date of purchase (five years in Scotland) to make a claim against the retailer for an appliance that has failed prematurely due to an inherent fault.
The newer the appliance and the more expensive the failure, the stronger your claim is likely to be. Retailers often try to redirect consumers to the manufacturer once a guarantee has expired – but the legal obligation remains with the retailer, not the manufacturer.
See our full guide: out of guarantee does not always mean you should pay for repairs.
Claiming on Home Contents Insurance
Some home contents insurance policies cover food loss from a freezer breakdown. This cover is sometimes included as standard, but is more often an optional add-on. Check your policy documents carefully.
Claiming through insurance is usually simpler than claiming against a retailer – but there are trade-offs to consider:
- Your premium may increase at renewal
- You will usually need to pay an excess, which may reduce or eliminate the payout on smaller claims
- Making a claim affects your no-claims history
- The insurer may apply limits on what they will pay per item or in total
For larger losses, insurance may still be the most practical route – particularly if the appliance failure is not covered by the Consumer Rights Act (for example, because it is very old). For smaller losses, it may not be worth claiming once the excess is taken into account.
If the appliance failure also gives you grounds for a Consumer Rights Act claim against the retailer, pursuing that route means you are not left out of pocket due to a faulty product – and does not affect your insurance record. Both routes can be explored in parallel, but you cannot be compensated twice for the same loss.
Whether you need an engineer to diagnose the fault, spare parts, or guidance on your rights, Whitegoods Help can point you in the right direction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I claim for food lost when my freezer breaks down?
Yes, in some circumstances. If the freezer failed due to a manufacturing defect covered by the Consumer Rights Act 2015 or a manufacturer’s guarantee, you may be able to claim the value of lost food as a consequential loss from the retailer. You can also check whether your home contents insurance covers freezer food loss. In either case, you must be able to demonstrate what was lost and show that you took reasonable steps to minimise the damage.
Who do I claim against – the retailer or the manufacturer?
Your legal claim under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 is always with the retailer who sold you the appliance – not the manufacturer. The manufacturer’s guarantee runs separately and can be claimed against directly during the guarantee period, but your statutory rights sit with the retailer. Do not be redirected to the manufacturer as a substitute for the retailer’s legal obligations. See our guide: Consumer Rights Act and faulty appliances.
What evidence do I need to make a claim?
At minimum: photographs of the freezer contents before disposal, an itemised written list of what was lost with estimated values, and receipts where available. Bank and card statements showing recent grocery purchases can support your claim where receipts are missing. You will also need an engineer’s report confirming the cause of the appliance failure before most retailers will consider a consequential loss claim.
My freezer is out of its guarantee – can I still claim?
Possibly. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, you have up to six years (five in Scotland) to bring a claim against the retailer for a freezer that has failed prematurely due to an inherent fault. The newer and more expensive the appliance, the stronger your case. An expired manufacturer’s guarantee does not end your statutory rights. Read more: out of guarantee does not always mean you should pay.
How long does a freezer keep food frozen after it stops working?
A full freezer with the door kept closed can maintain safe temperatures for approximately 48 hours after losing power. A half-full freezer typically keeps food safe for around 24 hours. Opening the door accelerates temperature loss significantly. If you discover the failure early, keep the door closed and transfer contents as quickly as possible to another freezer or cool storage. See our guide: how to save food if your freezer stops working.
Is it worth claiming on home insurance for food loss?
It depends on the value of the loss and the terms of your policy. If your policy includes freezer food cover, claiming is usually simpler than pursuing a retailer. However, you will typically pay an excess, and a claim may increase your future premiums. For smaller losses the excess alone may make a claim uneconomical. If you also have grounds for a Consumer Rights Act claim against the retailer, that route does not affect your insurance record and may be preferable.
Many thanks for such a prompt response. I was also amazed at their response, for a company the size of Samsung to respond in such a manner is not acceptable. I ran through several cold environment scenarios with their customer services team and eliminated each potential area that may have caused the problem. Like you, I was amazed the CS rep said 90%+ of freezer defrosting issues are resolved by a reboot. I assume their incoming calls are recorded so they can check (I doubt they will) on my claim.
The freezer has an alarm to notify when the door is left ajar and this is now working fine, we would have certainly been aware if the door was open.
We paid £1,700 for the appliance, its so disappointing when a ‘blue chip’ brand refuses to take any responsibility at all, and responds in such a poor and disengenious manner!
Hello Mark. Wow, £1700 for a fridge freezer is insane. I just bought an excellent separate tall freezer with a 3 year guarantee and it was only just over £500. I’m sure you can get equivalent tall fridges for similar price. It seems that these combined units are extremely expensive indeed. It would be considerably cheaper (and more reliable) to just buy separates and have them side-by-side but that doesn’t look as good :-)
Anyway, your original query said that the fridge freezer is only 11 months old. This means it is under warranty. I don’t understand how it is possible to pay £1700 for an appliance, and for it to completely break down under the guarantee, but the company that makes doesn’t think they need to come out to check it over.
You could be forgiven for suspecting that if the company has a stock answer to such an incident, and casually advises that all you need to do is restart it, that maybe they know there is an issue, an anomaly, or a problem with their appliance? It is definitely not normal for a freezer to completely defrost without some identifiable cause. I have never ever had a freezer completely defrost for no apparent reason, and neither do I know anybody that has. If it is not related to a very cold environment, or some fault at your house such as a faulty wall socket or an interrupted electrical supply, then it must have been caused by some fault, albeit maybe intermittent?
As an engineer I do appreciate that any fault that occurs and then apparently rights itself can be very difficult to diagnose. But the fact that they said that this does happen, and it should be okay once you have restarted it, is strange. They seem quite familiar with this. Maybe they know of an issue, or maybe they are genuinely puzzled?
If you haven’t done already, I would have a good search online to see if other people are complaining about this issue. I know for a fact that Samsung have already produced one of these fridge freezers in the past that had an inherent fault in it and caused widespread problems. Eventually they had to produce a modification.
I have Samsung fridge freezer, 11 months old.
The freezer compartment broke down overnight which we discovered the next morning via a flooded kitchen floor. We lost a substantial amount of food. Samsung customer services advised this is not uncommon and to reboot which we did and 4 hours later the freezer was working as normal.
Samsung have emailed me stating:
‘With regard to the consequential loss of food, we would not be able to compensate this as we are not a compensation based company’.
We have photographic evidence but can Samsung get away without any responsibility for this issue?
Hello Mark, that sentence, “we would not be able to compensate this as we are not a compensation based company” would be funny if it wasn’t 100% nonsense. It makes no sense on any level at all. To be honest, I’m astounded with the disingenuous cheek of it. Paying out compensation is something people are obliged to do by law when they have been responsible for a third parties financial losses, and not something anyone could possibly opt out of.
Having said that, whether or not they are responsible is a different matter. So they should only be talking about whether they are responsible or not. There is no such thing as a compensation-based company or a non-compensation based company.
So to be fair, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 it is only the retailer that is responsible when things break down (even though it’s obviously the manufacturer that carries out work under their guarantee). Unless they have recently carried out a repair that has failed and caused this issue, your rights are with the retailer.
One problem I expect you are going to have is that if the appliance is now working perfectly okay and has been for some time after the incident it’s very difficult for you to prove what went wrong. I also don’t recognise their assertion that this is a fairly common thing to happen. How can it be “normal” for one of their appliances to occasionally and randomly just defrost all of the food? Again it makes absolutely no sense. If they genuinely believe that this does regularly happen with no obvious causes and all you have to do is unplug and re-plugged back in then there is something seriously wrong with their product.
One possible cause of such a problem, which may be they are suspecting but haven’t made clear to you, is if your fridge-freezer is in an environment where the temperature can drop too low. This is a particular problem with fridge freezers that are placed in a garage or conservatory. However, in some people’s kitchens it may be possible for temperatures to drop too low overnight, and this can cause the freezer to start to defrost. It should be quite rare though.
The best thing that I can suggest is that you carefully check out the following links to see if it is possible that the freezer defrost and because the room it is in was quite cold for several hours. If you can discount this possibility then the fridge freezer must have gone faulty unless by any chance there was some sort of a power cut or the door was left ajar.
Unfortunately if it is now working perfectly all right it is going to be very difficult for you to convince a retailer that it broke down, unless it happens again.
Check this article (even if it’s not in a garage – it’s about a cold environment) Fridge freezers in garage or cold environment
Also check this article to work out if your fridge freezer has a climate class that says it might not work properly under a certain temperature Fridge climate classes UK
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my freezer packed in over the week end i am insured with post office i phoned them up because my access is 350 pounds i have to pay this first and the food that is spoiled is only 100pounds worth so it is no good claiming i tried to claim for a new fridge freezer but they say i am not covered is this correct regards H Isaacs
Hi there. Yes I mentioned this in my article above. It’s usually not worth claiming on house insurance. This is why if a retailer suggest that you do it is extremely unfair on you and you should pursue the retailer under the consumer rights act 2015 instead.
I presume you are talking about house insurance? It’s a bit disingenuous of them to say they cover the loss of food from the freezer but have an excess of £350 because this would mean that it’s almost always pointless trying to claim. House insurance doesn’t cover replacement of products that break down. It only covers them if they are damaged by fire or flood etc.
The only way you could claim as if you have a valid claim under the consumer rights act 2015 if for example it was still under guarantee, or if it has not lasted a reasonable time etc.