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My cousin freezes a lot of leftovers including thanksgiving turkey meat and also xmas ham and she then waits a year or two and defrosts them and eats them ...I keep telling her that one day she is going to catch a severe case of food poisoning that will kill her !! she laughs and says frozen food is good indefinitely ...everyone I talk too disagrees with that and tells me she is asking for trouble . Does anyone else think this practice is dangerous too ?
Dangerous? Heck no! Go to your local grocery store and check out the best used by dates on frozen food. Notice they don't say they expire. And even if it did, you won't die from something that expired yesterday or in 2 weeks. You would have gotten sick from day 1 if the food is contaminated. Frozen food keeps for years.
Why so worried about what your cousin does? You don't like it, don't go to dinner there. Don't come here either because there's stuff in my freezer that's over a year old. You wouldn't even know unless I told you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kmb501
Phonelady61,
Who on earth did you talk to? Why do people say things without checking their sources first? Um, we do have something called the internet, people. It's not like we are living in the dark ages or anything and can't look up good solid information and check our facts against the ignorant comments of other people. Sorry, but it really bothers me when people claim things that are simply not true and get well-meaning people, like you, to believe them. Look at the links posted by prior responders; frozen food is good for years as long as it is packaged and frozen properly. Who would think otherwise? I'm curious.
To all of you who think this method of food preservation is gross, try curing ham!
Well, there's quite a bit of complete and utter nonsense on the internet. Cornell has a great food preservation website as does Ball canning.
Curing ham? UGH! No way!! 400 pounds of salt and weeks later. Not to mention how it would taste. Much like a salt lick for a goat.
Properly stored food, in the refrigerator or freezer, should not grow/multiple the bacteria which causes food poisoning. However, the quality (taste) of the food may be off after so many months in the freezer depending on how it's stored.
Soda bottles now have expiration dates. Really. Sugar and carbonic acid and some flavoring.
If the FDA requires that companies put expiration dates on food, they must do periodic studies where they test the product and show that it is still good. What financial incentive is there for them to test 4 times in 4 years vs once in 12 months? So they put a minimal date and lots of people will throw out and buy new. Most canned goods can be used long after the expiration date.
This doesn't apply to everything. Clearly something like dairy foods that you buy refrigerated have a shorter expiry unless you freeze them, and some things won't taste too great if you freeze them.
We buy butter on sale and freeze it. If I forgot a pound and found it 2 years later, as long as it remained frozen I would use it.
My cousin freezes a lot of leftovers including thanksgiving turkey meat and also xmas ham and she then waits a year or two and defrosts them and eats them ...I keep telling her that one day she is going to catch a severe case of food poisoning that will kill her !! she laughs and says frozen food is good indefinitely ...everyone I talk too disagrees with that and tells me she is asking for trouble . Does anyone else think this practice is dangerous too ?
She won't get sick. My siblings and I go in on a processed, farm-raised pig once a year, and my husband and I freeze our quarter of the meat. It takes us pretty close to a year to use up a quarter of a pig. We try to leave things like smoked ham hocks that get used for soups and beans and the like for last, because then any texture changes aren't noticeable, since they're being slow cooked anyway.
So what? Is she serving it to you? oh...well... are you eating it? Anyway some people have HUGE freezers so it's probably fairly common. I don't want too much food in the house. I just never know when my next move is going to happen.
But most of the ham you buy is cured. Doing it yourself sounds like a chore, but the end result would be, you know, ham.
Without refrigeration, curing would be completely different. The ones I buy are smoked and not cured. Buy from the farm and your food is different than what is sold in grocery stores.
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Expiration dates are not always meaningful anyway
