Why you can’t refreeze meat and cases when you can do it
Is it possible to refreeze meat? It is not recommended to put a perishable product back into the freezer after defrosting. There are several reasons for this.
Why meat should not be re-frozen after defrosting
The main reason why you shouldn't refreeze meat is because of bacteria. A defrosted product is quickly contaminated with pathogenic microbes. Their number increases many times over when the meat is kept at room temperature. If such a product is put back into the freezer, this will not destroy the previously multiplied microorganisms on it. The next time you defrost the meat, there will be even more bacteria on it. Consumption of such a product is fraught with serious poisoning, including death.
Another reason for the undesirability of re-freezing meat lies in the loss of a number of its important qualities. Repeated defrosting affects the color of the meat tenderloin. It becomes less pronounced. The meat also develops a distinct unpleasant odor. It begins to smell like a stale and not entirely fresh product. This indicates the active reproduction of pathogenic microorganisms on it and inside it.
Repeated defrosting causes the meat to lose a lot of moisture. This greatly affects its taste. Such tenderloin becomes tasteless. Due to the loss of moisture, fats and proteins oxidize inside it. The meat is no longer juicy after cooking.
When can you refreeze?
In some cases, the tenderloin can be frozen again. One of them is early, proper storage of meat in the refrigerator. If it was previously in the freezer, and then gradually defrosted in the main compartment of the refrigerator at temperatures up to +4 0C no more than 4 hours, then in the future it can be put back in the freezer.
Meat that has been frozen for 4 days can be placed back into the freezer. It is also possible to re-freeze tenderloins that have previously been in the freezer for more than 2 hours.
It is allowed to re-freeze a piece of meat if it has been lying in a room for no more than an hour where the air temperature does not rise above 30 0C. But even if the product has not been stored for long at a high temperature, it must be frozen with extreme caution in the future due to active contamination with bacteria.
A warm, steamed piece of meat should not be flash frozen. It is pre-cooled at a temperature of no more than 8 0C. Once it is cool enough, you can start freezing it completely. In the future, after defrosting, such a product is not recommended to be re-frozen.
Secrets of properly thawing meat after re-freezing it
To ensure that the tenderloin is defrosted correctly and does not spoil, you must follow several methods:
- Place meat in cold water. The product is placed in a plastic bag and placed under cold running water. As soon as no signs of frozen meat are visible, it must be cooked immediately.
- Place the tenderloin in the refrigerator. The piece of meat is taken out of the freezer and placed in the upper compartment, where the temperature does not exceed +6 0C.There the product is kept until completely thawed. This may take a day. Once defrosted, the piece of meat must be cooked within a day. During the defrosting process, the product should not be removed from the refrigerator and should not be allowed to thaw at room temperature.
- Place the meat in the microwave to defrost. The fastest option is to let the piece thaw for a short time. The meat tenderloin is placed in a container and placed in the microwave. The device is set to defrost mode. With this mode, a piece of meat is defrosted in 15-20 minutes. You cannot set the microwave to another mode at high power. Then the product will defrost faster and begin to cook, which will affect its quality.
The best defrosting method presented is the refrigerator. Defrosting takes more time, but due to uniform defrosting, the meat tenderloin retains its taste and is less contaminated with pathogenic bacteria.