Partially thawed and refrozen food - safe to eat? (coffee, shrimp, defrost)
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After a week long trip I returned to find my freezer drawer slightly ajar. It was just enough for some of the stuff in the front to slightly thaw/melt. For example, a quart container of milk half melted but still had a large block of frozen milk bouncing around inside. Similarly, a carton of ice cream softened into a soft frozen custard - very soft but not entirely thawed.
So, the way I see it is as if this stuff was refrigerated for a week at borderline freezing temperatures. That seems quite different from, for example, thawing some chicken to room temp for a few hours and then refreezing it. Still, is it safe to eat? There were some frozen shrimp and flounder fillets, for example. It's all refrozen solid now. My plan would be just eat it all ASAP and then restock unless it all turned into death-food.
I'm of the school...better safe than sorry. You can't see, smell, taste some of the organisms that can kill you.
But that's just me...you'll likely get all sorts of responses. The CDC has a website with guidelines on how long foods can be left at room temp. That's what I followed when my power was out 12 hrs.
I'm with you, OP, if it wasn't really defrosted, then why worry, just use it up as quickly as possible. Any meat or fish or veg, I would cook well too.
I don't think refrozen food is dangerous as long as it hasn't completely thawed, but the quality and taste might really suffer. I probably would have tried to cook the meats as part of a dish that could then be frozen or used up in a few days. But I have a cast iron stomach and will eat things others might find questionable.
After a week long trip I returned to find my freezer drawer slightly ajar. It was just enough for some of the stuff in the front to slightly thaw/melt. For example, a quart container of milk half melted but still had a large block of frozen milk bouncing around inside. Similarly, a carton of ice cream softened into a soft frozen custard - very soft but not entirely thawed.
So, the way I see it is as if this stuff was refrigerated for a week at borderline freezing temperatures. That seems quite different from, for example, thawing some chicken to room temp for a few hours and then refreezing it. Still, is it safe to eat? There were some frozen shrimp and flounder fillets, for example. It's all refrozen solid now. My plan would be just eat it all ASAP and then restock unless it all turned into death-food.
I would toss anything not completely frozen, especially fish and chicken. While it maybe safe why risk it for a few dollars. I returned after a hurricane that had my power out for over a day, since I wasn't there to know if the items thawed and refroze I threw everything in there away.
Freezing milk? What does it have taste like when defrosted?
Quote:
Originally Posted by DubbleT
It's gross and only good for cooking with IMO, and I don't even like to do that if it calls for more than a tablespoon or two of milk.
Really, DubbleT? When I was growing up with 5 kids in the family, my mom would buy half a dozen gallons of milk on payday, then freeze all but 1 of them. When we were close to finishing off the one in the refrigerator, we'd get one out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to start defrosting (took a couple of days, then we'd shake the container and it looked exactly the same as one that had only been in the fridge).
The defrosted milk tasted FINE -- I certainly couldn't tell a difference. I was a picky kid in a lot of ways, but the milk was great whether previously frozen or not (and I mean drunk straight -- i.e., not for cooking or coffee). Note, this was whole milk -- not sure if that makes a difference.
These days I don't drink a lot of milk so I don't BUY a lot, but I often freeze some in very small containers if I think it will go bad before I can finish using it in my coffee. (This is 2% milk, which I rarely drink straight.)
More to the OP's point: probably once every month or two I start defrosting something*, then other plans come up so I put it back in the freezer for another day. I usually label it "partially defrosted on ..." with the date. I've done this for years and have never suffered any ill effects.
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* Note, I always defrost things in the refrigerator. One habit of my mom's that I DON'T have is defrosting meat on the kitchen counter!
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