refreezing thawed meat? (1 Viewer)

[Philip_G]

Dunno why I thought of this the other day, think I bought some partially frozen hamburger.. Anyway, since I was a kid I was told that you can't thaw out meat, then refreeze it and eat it or it'll make you sick. I was just wondering if anyone else had heard this or if it was true?
It's one of those things I heard for so many years I never really thought about it.

 

[Citizen87645]

I don't know if it will make you sick, unless you have a problem with texture. More than likely the meat will lose some its integrity, but then it again, it IS hamburger.

 

[Leila Dougan]

If the meat has only been partially thawed in the refridgerator, it is safe to refreeze. The texture won't be the same, as Cameron said, but it won't make you sick.

But after the meat has been completely thawed and at room temperature, you definetely do not want to refreeze.

 

[Citizen87645]

Yeah, you'd be preserving the bacteria. Think John Carpenter's "The Thing."

 

[Philip_G]

Hrm. Interesting.

must be some strange midwest wives tale then.
Afterall they eat catfish and other weird things

 

[Leila Dougan]

Well, Philip, I wouldn't quite say it's a old wives tale because it does have a lot of truth. The whole concept of thawing things out in your refridgerator is fairly new. The "old" method of just letting sit on the counter would certainly be bad!

 

[Philip_G]

refer thawing is for peoople that are better at planning ahead than I am..

Mostly I counter thaw and cook it that night, but the main reason the topic came up is that occasionally I see semi frozen food in the fresh meat area, and had always wondered if it was going to be a problem for someone to take that home and freeze it again, since I had always heard that was bad from my mom.

 

[John Alvarez]

I try to keep mine thawed all the time....
I have never seen partially frozen food in the fresh meat section. Isn't that against some F.D.A. guidlines like freezing milk?

 

[Philip_G]

dunno dude. I shop at walmart most of the time, I don't think meeting FDA guidelines is anywhere on their radar screen

I've seen it elsewhere too, sometimes things just get a little too cold, chicken seems to be the worst, both breasts and whole chickens.

 

[Matt Souza]

On the poultry side of things, 32* is the freezing point of water, but poultry is allowed by the USDA to be kept at 26*, so thats why you see some partialy frozen poultry in the stores.

check out this link, I can't post links yet, so goto google and put in freshlabel.htm and hit the second link on the page to goto the USDA site.