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Pef421- OP t1_ja9oyz7 wrote

Reply to comment by Spiritual_Jaguar4685 in Eli5 Why can't we refreeze thawed food? by Pef421-

Very interesting . So because of all those sliced cells, microorganisms growth faster on thawed food ? Does it means that thawed food has to be cooked right away and can’t go to the fridge like fresh food ?

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Moskau50 t1_jaa4fow wrote

These are two different problems.

The breakdown of cells from freeze-thaw cycles makes the food less appetizing.

The time spent in the "danger zone" (40-140F, or 4-60C) allows bacteria to grow, with bacteria growing faster at warmer temperatures. If you thaw food in the fridge, it should be safe for a few more days. If you thaw food on the countertop (and let it come to room temperature) and then put it into the fridge, it might go bad in a day.

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Cindexxx t1_jaa5p48 wrote

The danger zone thing is where it kinda gets lost though. For example:

My parents get half a cow each year. Someone mixed some stuff up and put a chunk of the burgers in the fridge instead of the freezer. Well, the fridge was still below 40F (basement fridge is set pretty low) so the meat thawed but didn't hit the danger zone.

The rest of the family still living there were put off by it, so unless he cooked it without them seeing they didn't want it. So he gave me the thawed + refrozen ones. They're just fine.

Since it's just me and my wife, it's hard to get through 8 burgers fast enough. We just don't eat beef like that. Normally when we got a few packs they weren't thawed so we could just break the package in half due to the way it was packaged and thaw that half. If I was sure I could even break that in half and only take out the two we wanted to eat.

Well since these thawed I can't do that at all. They kinda squished together. So a few times now I put them in the fridge until they're thawed enough to break apart (or nearly completely thawed if doing it overnight) and then repacking them in batches of 2 to refreeze.

Two thaws, two refreezes, doesn't matter. Sure they might spoil a little faster if I leave them in the fridge now.... But it doesn't really matter.

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