Rules surrounding the freezing of purchased foods

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Soldato
Joined
24 Aug 2011
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ABQ, NM
Basically I'd like some explanation on why

1) I must freeze my item on day of purchase.
2) I must not thaw then re-freeze.
3) Some items are not suitable for freezing.

Number 1 to me makes no sense. If I went to the store a day later and bought the same item I would still be allowed to freeze it, so why can't i take it home a day early and freeze it the following morning?

Surely with number 2 as long as you don't get a virus on the food then it can be re-frozen?

And with number 3 why can some food not be frozen? I think the food can tbh but they must have some reasoning for why they say you can't.
 
No.1 is puerly for freshness for longer I thought, the sooner you freeze it at its peak then the longer it stays fresh.

No.2 i ALWAYS follow.

No.3 Don't understand.
 
It's like some foods are not suitable for microwaving. Well frozen fishfingers may well go slightly rubbery when microwaved but they make a great sarnie and I've never been ill from them.
 
desires said:
Number 1 to me makes no sense. If I went to the store a day later and bought the same item I would still be allowed to freeze it, so why can't i take it home a day early and freeze it the following morning?
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Quicker you freeze it the less time for it to go off. You are only pausing (or slowing down) growth remember.

Surely with number 2 as long as you don't get a virus on the food then it can be re-frozen?
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Fresh food always has bacteria and mould spores on it, as you defrost it they reproduce - freezing it again only stops them growing it does not kill what has grown. Even cooking will not remove any toxins they have produced while growing.

If you defrost in the fridge then re-freeze, I wouldn't see a problem, but be aware of the 'use by' clock ticking.


And with number 3 why can some food not be frozen? I think the food can tbh but they must have some reasoning for why they say you can't.
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Some foods turn to mush when defrosted.
 
I always found this weird about the defrosting thing:

If I have forgotten to defrost something (like a chicken breast), and I put it in a sealed bag and submerge it in cold water, it will defrost in about 15 minutes.... Weird... Obviously, the bigger the item then the longer it takes but its a lot shorter than even room temp defrosting
 
It's in contact with a medium (water) with a much greater ability to carry heat than air.

Can you imagine your central heating system running on blown air?! Pipes would be massive!
 
Richie said:
I always found this weird about the defrosting thing:

If I have forgotten to defrost something (like a chicken breast), and I put it in a sealed bag and submerge it in cold water, it will defrost in about 15 minutes.... Weird... Obviously, the bigger the item then the longer it takes but its a lot shorter than even room temp defrosting
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Because you're looking for really any difference in temp to increase the temp of the colder item, water is a vastly better heat transfering medium than air.


As for freezing, just to add to Teliscopi's info on number 2, many of the things that make you sick in food is the toxins released when cooking food kills the bacteria in the food. Letting food thaw lets the number of bacteria increase, as he said, freezing stops them reproducing, doesn't kill them. Thawing and refreezing will increase the amount of bacteria in food, and make that food more dangerous to eat when you cook it, more bacteria = bad if not cooked properly, more bacteria = bad if it produces toxins when reproducing, more bacteria = bad if you kill them when cooking and killing them releases toxins.

More bacteria = bad, refreezing stuff = more bacteria... .don't do it.

The worst foods for types, not entirely sure why, types of bacteria and speed of growth I guess, are ice cream and rice.
 
Richie said:
I always found this weird about the defrosting thing:

If I have forgotten to defrost something (like a chicken breast), and I put it in a sealed bag and submerge it in cold water, it will defrost in about 15 minutes.... Weird... Obviously, the bigger the item then the longer it takes but its a lot shorter than even room temp defrosting
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^^ Is this safe?
 
SpaghettiOs said:
You can't then put it in the fridge.
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Why not? If you submerge a frozen chicken breast (in a sealed bag) in cold water, the temperature will equalize, defrosting the chicken. Say the water is 5 degrees C and the chicken is minus 10, you'd probably end up with a piece of chicken at 3 or 4 degrees (ambient room temperature has a part to play in this too). Meaning your chicken is now at fridge temperature. Surely there is no harm in putting the chicken in the fridge now? It's never once gone over say, 5 degrees allowing bacteria to cultivate at any dangerous rate.
 
Why can't you cook some things from frozen?
Surely if you heat it up to the correct temperature to kill the nasty stuff it doesnt matter what temperature it was when you started cooking?
 
I should probably have said you shouldn't then put it in the fridge. You're probably OK for a couple of days at most, but if you warmed it past fridge temperature (easily done seeing as cold water is normally warmer than 5 degrees) then there could be some risk.

If you weren't going to use it straight away, why would you defrost using that method anyway, when you could just stick it in the fridge for a few hours?
 
touch said:
Why can't you cook some things from frozen?
Surely if you heat it up to the correct temperature to kill the nasty stuff it doesnt matter what temperature it was when you started cooking?
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Cooking from frozen means the outside will be cooked while the middle is still frozen/raw.

As for number 3 in the OP, I've only ever seen this on food that has been frozen at some point before already, either as part of the manufacturing or transport process.
 
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