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Refreezing Meat

Is it okay to refreeze meat that has been allowed to thaw?

Is it okay to refreeze meat that has been allowed to thaw?

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as long as the meat was thawed properly in the refrigerator and not at room temperature, it is safe to refreeze it. The danger of thawing frozen meat at room temperature is that it may sit in the danger zone of 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the optimum environment for bacteria growth. In addition to the safety issue is the question of quality. When meat is frozen, the liquid within the cells expands, which can damage the cell walls. When the meat is thawed, the liquid seeps out, leaving the meat more prone to drying out as it cooks. The more times this process is repeated, the more likely the quality of the meat will deteriorate. To find out just how bad this deterioration is, we prepared burgers with two batches of ground beef, one frozen and then thawed in the refrigerator just once and one refrozen and thawed a second time. Tasters noted the difference immediately, calling the refrozen batch "a little tough and springy," "grainy," and "a little drier" than the batch that had been frozen only once. Our advice? Skip the refreezing.

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