Refreezing defrosted food.

[Andyvon]

Why can't you refreeze food once it's defrosted?

Yesterday, I found I hadn't shut the freezer door properly on Thursday and after 24 hours most contents of the freezer had partially defrosted. Things such as meat and fish products weren't too badly gone and I did think about simply closing the freezer door again and refreezing everything. However, I took the safe course of action and I threw everything away. I've now got a wheelie bin full of ruined food.

That apart, I've once again pondered why you can't refreeze defrosted food. It's obviously for bacteriological reasons as bacteria starts to replicate above a certain temperature. But I would have thought that any bacteriological growth will stop as soon as you refreeze food and the numbers of bacteria subsequently consumed would be no more than when the food thawed the first time.

Someone's going to put me straight with some incredulity here but it's a question I've wondered about for some time. Could someone please explain exactly why you can't put things back in the freezer?

Thanks.

[yogasun]

Good question. I know that occasionally I have, for example, taken some frozen veg out the freezer (e.g. peas), taken what I needed and then forgot to put them back immediately. A couple of hours later they have been almost thawed out but I've taken a chance and re-frozen them without any problem at all.
Have also done it with bread and ice cream...unless it gets hot having been left out a long time is it really that dangerous?
My son is a supermarket manager and if a freezer fails and stuff starts to defrost the whole lot goes in the skip !

[pastafreak]

The answer is here

http://www.foodlink.org.uk/atoz_sel.asp?sel=Re freezing

Yet...when I have looked this up on US websites......there is a huge amount of advice on re-freezing. I would say-as a cook myself-NEVER re freeze. It is the safer option as there are too many variables with individual foods.

[legend.isgod]

Never reefreeze its common knowledge.


D T H ?

[Sweep75]

When the food is initially frozen, it has some bacteria on it, freezing only stops these bacteria, it doesn't kill them. Each time the food starts to defrost the bacteria starts to grow, and refreezing again halts them. This makes the food have a shorter shelf life and a higher bacteria content than when first frozen.
Like Yogasun, I have done the 'frozen pea thing', and I have a few tubes of frozen herbs and spices that have been defrosted and refrozen quite a lot. Maybe I'm lucky to be here to tell the tale.
It does affect the taste also....though so does using frozen food in the first place!

[Andyvon]

Thank you everyone. Sorry about the delay but I've been away for a few days.

Yogasun and Sweep - I have refrozen things such as veg and bread rolls and those are the items I saved last week and did refreeze. For some reason, instinct just seems to say there can't be too much wrong with refreezing those products. The items I didn't take a chance with were fish and meat products such as sausages, pies, pork steaks and mince. They weren't fully defrosted but I still took the safe course.

With certain products such as bacon I always bag and freeze them in small amounts so I don't have to defrost large amounts for just a few rashers.

Of course, the real answer is to make sure the freezer door is properly closed in the first place!

Thanks for the answers everyone.

[bryanrd]

According to the USDA food safety and inspection service it is ok to refreeze food so long as it has been defrosted in the refrigerator or at refrigerator temperatures. It should not be refrozen if its been kept at over 40 degrees fahrenheit for more than two hours.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Factsheets/Focus_On_F reezing/index.asp