Refreezing meat question....

[Wannabefree]

Can you refreeze fish? I have 30 pounds of raw thawed fish in my fridge. I was wondering could you refreezze it or is that a big no no? I know you can't with some meats. I can't eat all of them unless we have fish every day for a couple weeks.

 

[terri9630]

I think we have refrozen just about everything. By the time I get from the store to my house, unless I happen to remember an ice chest, most frozen things are at the least partially thawed

 

[Wannabefree]

Yeah I know they SAY not to, but I have as well and it was fine. Just wondering about everyone else's experience. It has been a long while since I had a reason to refreeze anything, but I definately do now with all this fish!

 

[terri9630]

I think we've done it the most with fish. It seems to thaw the fastest.

 

[Wannabefree]

Good then I'm gonna repackage these into 2-4 pound bags rather than a huge pile of fish We'll have fish dinners for a while off of these

 

[Cindlady2]

I re-freeze meat and fish all the time. My DH works for a restaurant supply Co. So I get allot of things in big bulk packages. It' s best if they are thawed just enough to break apart but, doesn't always happen that way. I have found weather freezing or re-freezing the important thing is to get as much air out as you can.

 

[cheepo]

i think it is a situation..where some foods quality is not quite as good refrozen...
but am no expert..but say go for it...

 

[DianeS]

Looks like even the USDA is fine with refreezing foods, as long as they've been handled safely while unfrozen: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/Focus_On_Freezing/index.asp#14

Seems the issue is mainly with the loss of moisture from defrosting - defrosting twice means even less moisture and a dry cut of whatever meat it is. Also, if the food were handled improperly while unfrozen, you might forget that it happened by the time you unfreeze the second time and not treat it as carefully. Those seem to be the only issues.

That said, I do it too. Sometimes I go ahead and cook the meat before refreezing it (nice for those nights you don't feel like waiting long enough to cook meat for dinner), but a lot of the time I don't.

 

[2dream]

The reason we have always been told not to refreeze - frozen foods from most grocery stores come in trucks that have traveled all over the place stopping, opening the doors, unloading, handled by who knows how many people and during the process it partially thaws some or maybe even completely. You have no idea how many times this has happened. By the time you purchase it and get it home it may have been completely or partially thawed 4 or 5 times and possibly more. All fish and seafood thaws rather quickly and has probably been thawed or partially thawed several times before you get it.

So there you have it. If its food you processed and you know you did it right the first time, you can safely refreeze anything including fish.