Do Not Refreeze after Defrosting

[ojread2]

It's all well and good putting this on packets of meat, but given that the chicken I bought this morning was partially frozen you can't then also have, suitable for home freezing ion the packet, can you?

How does this work? Can I freeze it or not?

[boxtops]

How can the chicken be partially frozen when you bought it? The risk is for items which are frozen then thawed - you can't refreeze them raw, but you can cook them and freeze the cooked version.

[ummmm]

This also happens with prawns.

[hippyhoppy]

Never trust a prawn.. according to Victoria Wood, they tread water with their mouths open at sewage outlet pipes.... *bleugh*

[douglas9401]

"How can the chicken be partially frozen when you bought it?"

Possibly because of incorrect refrigerator storage by the seller on the chiller on the delivery truck being set at too low a temperature.

[ummmm]

Most of them are farmed now.

[ojread2]

No diea box, but it was definitely partially frozen, or partially defrosted :-)

I also find if I buy 'fresh' prawns then they can also be still partly frozen ummm

[ummmm]

And they still have suitable for home freezing on them.

[ojread2]

quite, but how can they be? They're not, are they?
But how do they supermarkets get away with doing it? You would have to question all the fresh meat then, wouldn't you?
Think I'll only buy frozen or fresh if I am using it in the next day or so

[237SJ]

I picked up a packet of prawns at Sainsburys and they were partially frozen. I told a member of staff that I wanted to freeze them so that meant they would have been frozen twice. She went off and asked someone and said "It`s alright, because they have been blast frozen". I was none the wiser really.

[ojread2]

blast frozen? What on earth is that? lol
It's still previously frozen though, isn't it? Gonna ask next me thinks

[Ratty2E]

I got fed up with supermarket meat ages ago I just buy fresh from a farmshop butcher now. I have bought so called fresh prawns that have had bits of ice and some of the partially frozen before but being sold as fresh. If whatever it is has been previously frozen I thought it had to say on the label. It certainly can't be sold as fresh. Personally I wouldn't freeze it if it felt like it had been frozen no matter what they packet said.

[ladychef818]

Here in the U.S. I have gotten partially frozen tons of times and here the Purdue commercials always boast "always fresh, never frozen". Nonsense. Maybe they ship it that way but somewhere along the way, the shops are freezing it before they put it out. I do what someone else suggested. If I'm unsure, I cook it and put in freezer bags and then chop up and use in stir fry, pot pie, chicken salads, etc. Although my 93 year old granny told me she froze things several times and nobody died from it! LOL. Hey, she's 93. It didn't kill her!

[annie0000]

There is actually nothing wrong with refreezing food, the problem is that people don't tend to cook it properly to a high enough temp to destroy any bacteria - if something is refrozen then you are refreezing multiplied bacteria so there is an increased risk if it isn't cooked properly - to cut down the risk, it's easier just to tell people not to refreeze.

...and yes, I often buy prawns that feel partially frozen - but they would be really as all fish is packed in ice as soon as it is caught - not sure what was going on with the chicken though unless it was just an overcool chiller.