Can you refreeze thawed ground beef

People on cooking. SE usually strongly advise to follow the US agencies "2 hours in danger zone" recommendation interesting to note that the quote on JYelton's answer mentions 4 hours instead of 2. French European? Disclaimer : I'm no physician or food or health or food safety specialist, just reporting informations gathered on trustable IMO websites.

The answer depends on how the meat was thawed. If you read any of the health and safety documentation it tends to stipulate that meat thawed in a refrigerator can be safety refrozen. It's not dangerous but it significantly impacts the quality of the meat. Most noticeably, it's ability to hold onto moisture. Frozen food should be consumed quickly after it is defrosted.

Do this within 1 week after the first defrost and 24 hours after the second. Red meat is the fastest decaying food and it's already been frozen before getting into your freezer. A study indicates that refreezing food adds risks for contamination because freezing the meat ruptures the muscles in such a way that bacteria can travel from the surface to the interior. Each additional thaw allows the bacteria to expand in areas normally not affected by the bacteria.

Leaving for a trip, I bought frozen foods - vegetables and sausages - and kept them in a freezer bag on the train journey, imaging they would not unfreeze On arrival, I immediately refroze the defrosted foods, then cooked them properly and very thoroughly the next day, straight from the freezer the meat correctly thawed in a microwave and ate them straight away I had very bad food poisoning, tingling at the extremiites, trembling, and other syptoms, but, unfortunately, was unable to retch and get rid of the food that way.

I had to wait for it to pass. I spent a grisly few hours, and am convinced I survive because of an iron constitution : I am rarely ill, never suffer from food- poisoning, and eat all sorts of things which would flatten a mere mortal.

Take it from me - whilst it may be possible to safely refreeze under certain conditions, don't risk it Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How dangerous is it to refreeze meat that has been thawed? Ask Question. Asked 11 years, 4 months ago. Active 7 years, 11 months ago. Viewed k times.

Improve this question. Daniel Bingham Daniel Bingham 2, 9 9 gold badges 27 27 silver badges 34 34 bronze badges. I know this is an old question, but I just wanted to let you know that it helped me. We were affected by Sandy -- our power was out for two days. We had frozen bottles of water in our stand-alone freezer to keep it cold, and didn't open it. When our power came back, the freezer's temperature display said it was only 34 degrees inside.

So I know that my meat is safe, but could lose some texture. One of the reasons I love this site! Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Here is an excerpt from The Professional Chef, by the Culinary Institute of America : Foods left in the danger zone for a period longer than four hours are considered adulterated. Only refreeze hamburger if you have thawed it in the refrigerator and kept it in the refrigerator. Don't refreeze it if you simply left it out at room temperature to thaw.

Even if you used one of the other two safe thawing methods, in cold water or the microwave, it might not be wise to refreeze the thawed hamburger. Both of those methods allow some time for bacteria to begin to multiply on areas of the hamburger that have warmed above refrigerator temperature. Don't refreeze hamburger that has been left outside of the refrigerator for longer than two hours at room temperature or for an hour at a temperature above 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

In that case, bacteria will have had a chance to multiply, and it could result in food-borne illness. Most hamburger you buy in a grocery store has been ground from cuts of meat coming from many individual steers rather than ground from a slab of meat from one animal. At each step, there is a risk that bacteria have been included.

Plus, the hamburger has much more surface area that can be contaminated with bacteria compared with whole cuts of meat. As a result, even hamburger that has been handled properly is inherently more risky than whole cuts of meat. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Cook or refreeze ground beef within 1 to 3 days. If you are pressed for time, you can defrost in the microwave or in cold water.

When using the microwave, cook the ground beef immediately because some areas may begin to cook during the defrosting. To thaw frozen meat in cold water, put the meat in a watertight plastic bag and submerge, changing the water every 30 minutes. Cook immediately. Never refreeze raw ground meat thawed in cold water or in the microwave oven unless you cook it first.

Remember: Only refreeze hamburger if you have thawed it in the refrigerator and kept it in the refrigerator. Never refreeze it if you left it out at room temperature to thaw which you should never do anyway.

Even if you thawed the meat in cold water or the microwave it is unwise to refreeze it; both methods allow time for bacteria to grow on areas of the meat that have warmed above refrigerator temperature. Amazon shoppers are living in these on-sale joggers: 'OMG these are the most comfortable pants I've ever owned!

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