Q. Is it safe to re-freeze thawed meat?
If meat or any other food is thawed in the refrigerator, it
is safe to refreeze it without cooking (although there may be some loss in
product quality). However, if foods were thawed using the cold water method or
in the microwave, those foods should be cooked before re-freezing as parts of
the product may have been over 40F in the thawing process, which would allow
pathogen growth.
But, it may be easier and safer to cook and then freeze meat
that has been thawed. USDA has more information available on this topic, as
well as on general defrosting safety.
Thank you!!!! My kids brought some deer sausage to us Christmas. It was frozen when they left home but by the time they got here it had thawed. I put it in the freezer and hoped I could find someone that could tell me if it was still OK to eat or not.
ReplyDeleteAs long as the meat wasn't warmer than the temperature of a refrigerator (40 degrees F) for more than two hours, it is fine to eat.
ReplyDeleteIf you think the meat was above 40 degrees F for more than two hours, it may have an unsafe amount of bacteria that grew during that time and I wouldn't eat it.