What's the real truth about the safety of ground beef that's been thawed & refrozen? I've heard both sides.

Answer 1

There is no real problem. The correct answer is not yes or no.

Meat builds up bacteria levels to an unhealthy level. That level we will call X. At room temperature it may take 24 hours for levels to reach X. At 40 degreees it may take 36 hours to reach X. If you thaw it for one day, freeze it and then thaw it again, you think you have three days, but in reality you have only two days or else it will go bad.

So, you need to track the combined time that it is thawed before consuming. You have about 3 days total. Remener that everything you buy at the supermarket was already frozen.

Answer 2

First, unless you've frozen your beef to -130F or lower, the bacteria in there haven't died or even stopped reproducing; they've only slowed down a lot. In the process of thawing the meat out, you're waking them up and speeding up the process. So if you thawed it in the fridge (and you'd better keep all of it below 40F at all times), then as soon as the core temperature rose above about 30 F you dumped it back into deep freeze, it was like having unfrozen beef in the fridge for a full day (give or take a few hours on either side... depends on a lot of variables) Will it kill you to use it after thawing again? Probably not, but you continue to run increased risk of food poisoning every time you do this.

Answer 3

I have always heard that you should never refreeze meat and use up thawed meat within 24 hours. I am curious to know why though...hope someone has the answer...

Answer 4

There is no harm, safety wise, in thawing and refreezing meat. It will just taste god awful.

Answer 5

Ask a butcher - wild opinions on Yahoo may not be the most reliable.

Answer 6

It's never good to unthaw anything and refreeze it. Once it's been unthawed whatever it may be you either use it, or throw it out.