291582 Wed Jan 15 11:05:19 -0800 2003 9 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1587690 Is it safe to freeze, thaw (in a fridge), refreeze and rethaw food? I've always heard you can't refreeze food one it's defrosted, but dad claims that's an old wives tale, stemming from when home freezer units came into vogue, and people had the misperception that freezing would kill the bacteria that made food spoil. So (claims dad) people thought that if a defrosted food was going bad, you could refreeze and thaw and it would return to the state it was in when you originally froze it. Anyway, what say you, Chowhounds? OK to defrost and freeze again provide it's done within a reasonable amount of time? Wed Jan 15 11:05:19 -0800 2003 0 Chris VR 1 1587699 I sure hope so. I was in a hurry a couple of months ago and froze a cup or so of coconut milk in a glass jar. Now we're being more careful about our consumption of fats, and probably won't want to use more than a tbsp or two at a time. I was thinking of thawing it and refreezing in ice cube trays. Wed Jan 15 11:22:34 -0800 2003 1587690 0 C. Fox 1 1587702 Whether it is safe or not depends on what you thaw and how you thaw it. Meat thawed in a refrigerator and not stored there for long can be refrozen, buy you lose quality. Anything thawed at room temp or in a microwave should be cooked right away. The attached link has lots more detail and also good information on what not to wash and why, among other things. It's worth noting that it's a violation of health and safety laws to refreeze food in a commercial establishment, and you should never buy anything that looks like it's been refrozen. Link: http://www.aces.edu/dept/extcomm/radioline/aug30.html Wed Jan 15 11:28:33 -0800 2003 1587690 0 lucia 1 1587704 I was under the impression that it was just meat and fish that shouldn't be frozen/thawed/refrozen as it affects the texture and taste, a theory which has been borne out in experimentation (mine)....yuck. Wed Jan 15 11:28:48 -0800 2003 1587690 0 GG Mora 1 1587711 When you freeze food the water expands as it turns into ice (unlike almost everything else that shrinks when cooled, water expands - without that unique property life wouldn't be possible, but I digress.) This has a tendancy to burst the cell walls in your food. Freezing and thawing again bursts more cell walls, making the food mushier with each pass. Other things happen in the process, but this is the big thing. The degree to which this happens is dependent on the food itself. Coffee grounds and flour could probably be frozen and thawed every day whereas I'm not sure I'd freeze a pear once. As for food safety, if bad bacteria start to grow on something and then you freeze it, whether or not the bacteria grow again when thawed depends on the bacteria, how long it was frozen and at what temp. Wed Jan 15 12:04:12 -0800 2003 1587690 0 muD 2 1587727 There is a difference between types of freezing. In a powerful freezer, food frozen quickly does not lose as much cell content...since the cells freeze before they crystalize. If slow frozen, the sharp crystals will puncture the cell wall, and the food will lose some flavor and texture. Modern quick-freezing can prevent that loss. Fish frozen with the right equipment on board ship can taste almost fresh (many times, fresher, not having spend days in transit and on ice in the fish market). If thawed slowly in the fridge, it can be quickly refrozen. Wed Jan 15 13:21:18 -0800 2003 1587711 0 Jim H. 3 1587733 >the cells freeze before they crystalize. If slow >frozen, the sharp crystals will puncture the cell >wall, and the food will lose some flavor and >texture. Modern quick-freezing can prevent that >loss. This concept, which was first discovered by Clarence Birdseye during a trip to the Arctic in 1916, is the basis for the frozen-food industry. -- Paul Wed Jan 15 13:37:28 -0800 2003 1587727 0 Paul Lukas 3 1587799 For the reason you describe, some chefs, for example Morimoto for his sushi, have a (very expensive) cryogenic freezer. It's about -50 degrees or so, and fish suffers little deterioration when frozen so rapidly. Thu Jan 16 00:38:27 -0800 2003 1587727 0 uncledave 2 1587732 Not to belabor a point, but e.coli and lysteria will survive well in a freezer or refrigerator for a very long time and will definitely start to grow again when warm. So if you thaw and refreeze meat, poultry, pate, contaminated vegetables, or any other potentially hazardous food, you have just built and stored a bigger colony of bad guys. The best ways to store e. coli is to refrigerate or freeze it. Also, I know this discussion has focused on meat, poultry and fish, but one of the biggest outbreaks of e. coli recently was carried on raspberries. Wed Jan 15 13:33:46 -0800 2003 1587711 0 lucia 1 1587742 Orange roughy is brought to this country in giant frozen blocks (always from the vicinity of Australia, haven't heard it come from anywhere else)- thawed, split into smaller blocks, re-frozen for distribution and then of course, thawed at the store for your convenience. which is why, when I was a fish monger, our mgr (at a Whole Foods type store) never bought orange roughy except for the very rare appearence of fresh roughy shipped on dry ice. which is why I never, ever get orange roughy- the most tasteless fish in the world anyway. (IMO) Wed Jan 15 14:42:27 -0800 2003 1587690 0 eileenie