why is it bad to refreeze meat?

Answer 1

because raw meat is very fragile! Bacteria easily develop there, with the temperature change! Actually the only way to save it is to cook it first (you kill the potentia bacteria) and then refreeze it!

Answer 2

freezing meat doesn't kill bacteria. The cold only inhibits bacterial growth. So when you freeze meat it only stops the bacteria already there. Thawing it allows the bacteria there to grow during the temperature danger zone. 40 - 140/145 degrees is the prime temperatures for bacteria to grow. Thawing meat leaves it in those temperatures for a good period of time. So the bacteria grow then taint the meat then you refreeze meat that may make you seek.

Answer 3

To answer this question, you need to think about what freezing meat does in the first place. It will preserve meat indefinitely from biological decay, but it's a treatment that damages muscle tissue and therefore diminishes meat quality in several ways:

Cell damage and fluid loss: As the meat freezes, the ice crystals grow and puncture soft cell membranes. When the meat is thawed, these crystals melt and the holes in the cells readily leak fluid that is rich is salts, vitamins, proteins, and pigments. That is why KA's answer of cooking the meat first makes sense. The tissue has already been damaged by the cooking process and lost fluid. Cell damage can be minimized by freezing the meat as rapidly as possible and keeping it as cold as possible. The faster the meat freezes, the smaller the ice crystals. Cut the meat into smaller pieces and leave it unwrapped until it's frozen.

Fat oxidation and rancidity: When ice forms, the removal of the water from the muscle fluids acts to concentrate the salts and trace metals and promotes the oxidation of unsaturated fats. Rancid flavors accumulate. This means quality declines noticeably for fresh fish and poultry after a few months, for pork after about 6 months, for lamb and veal after about 9 months, and for beef after about a year.

Freezer burn: This is caused by water sublimating (the equivalent of evaporation at below-freezing temperatures) from the ice at the meat surface into the dry freezer air. The departure of the water leaves tiny cavities in the meat surface which scatter light and so appear white. Minimize this by wrapping the meat as tightly as possible with water-impermeable plastic wrap.

Now, imagine doing this once to a piece of meat, thawing it, and then doing it again. You're only exacerbating the problem. The problems listed by previous posters of bacteria growing are really only if you thaw the meat on the kitchen counter or with some other unsafe method which allows the bacteria to flourish.

Answer 4

If you thaw it then refreeze it you can make water crystals that may make the meat bad in the long run.

Answer 5

When you freeze meat, you slow down the growth of bacteria on the meat. If you thaw it the bacteria begins to grow again so when you freeze it again and then thaw it again for cooking the bacteria is multiplying.

Answer 6

yes if it was frozen before. You have to cook it first then refreeze it.

Answer 7

It pulls to much moisture out of the meat,

Answer 8

because it bacteria and sighmanella...and yucky stuff that will make u sick.EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Answer 9

it grows backteria