You Can Refreeze Meat After It's Been Thawed Out, But Only Under Certain Circumstances
Now more than ever, you may be depending on food in your freezer to help round out your meals. Whether it's meat or produce, you might find yourself sticking it in the freezer so you can use it later rather than going to the grocery store whenever you need a specific ingredient. Once meats are thawed out, though, can they be refrozen? The answer may be more complicated than you'd think.
As a general rule of thumb, if you can avoid refreezing items, you should. Try to only take out the amount you'll need for your initial meal and your leftovers, just to ensure maximum freshness each time. We get that sometimes you overestimate how much ground beef you'll need for that new bolognese recipe you're trying out, but letting meat defrost and then sticking it back in the freezer can seriously affect the overall taste and quality of the product.
For one, when you refreeze meat, it loses moisture. Whenever you've left a frozen package of meat to thaw before cooking, you've probably seen the liquid collect at the bottom. When you put it back in the freezer, it loses that moisture once again, so your twice-frozen chicken breast will definitely not be as juicy as you'd like. This all goes back to the fiber and cells that make up meat—you can read a more scientific explanation from this experiment where testers analyzed meat after being frozen and thawed out multiple times.
That said, if you really want to refreeze meat so as to not waste any surplus you may have, you can generally do so if you thawed it out in the refrigerator or any other area that maintains a temperature of less than 42°F. That means if you set your meat on the counter or tossed it in the microwave for a couple minutes to defrost, putting it back in the freezer after that is a no-go. As always, if you notice an off smell or a stranger color than usual, you should dispose of it just to be safe.
Once your meat is safely frozen, keep in mind it can't stay in the freezer forever. The USDA has particular guidelines for how long meat can stay frozen without sacrificing quality or taste. For roasts, steaks, and chops, you probably have about a year in the freezer, but for ground meat or cooked frozen meat, three-to-four months is the sweet spot.
When possible, definitely try your best to estimate exactly how much meat you'll need for that meal, leftovers, and an impromptu midnight snack so you don't need to worry about refreezing. If you really, really want to save the rest of your raw meat in the freezer, be sure to follow these simple steps and you'll be all set!
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