Re-Freezing meat?

Question

Friday I am going to make some freezer meals. I have a TON of chicken breasts and steak and was wondering if I partially defrosted it (enough to slice) the refroze it, if anything would happen, or if I should just by unfrozen meat and proceed from there. Any ideas?

Answer 1

DO NOT RE-FREEZE!!

Not a good idea ever, either defrost it completely, cook it thoroughly, cool and re freeze, or buy fresh and cook it

Answer 2

Here's my answer to your dilemma.Thaw your meat to the point that it will be easy to slice, then slice it. Continue to thaw it completely and do your cooking ahead with your meats. Pack it after you have cooked and cooled it into containers and then freeze it until needed for your get together.
I know this works because I've done it, on the occasion of my freezer door being left open accidentally and to save throwing everything out I spent a whole day cooking each type of food and then freezing it after all the cooking. It was work, but I saved all that money, also did not have to cook meals for a week. What a pleasure that was.

Answer 3

The partial thaw and cut operation SHOULD be fine, but is not recommended. You should also not cut more than one type of meat without a good cleaning of equipment and surface. Here is a site dedicated to the safe handling (http://www.meatsafety.org) of meat including storage and preparation. The thing with meat is to limit the available bacteria growth time and contamination. Keeping the meat mostly frozen is a good idea but some liquids will likely thaw and be covering your work surface. This can be a big source of contamination if left too long, or mixed with other types of meat. I regularly clean my work surfaces with a 2% bleach mix, about a cap full in a spray bottle. After a soap and water wipe down and a sprits with a little of the bleach, all should be clean.

Answer 4

I have always been told not to re-freeze meat after you have thawed it. You can always freeze it after it has been cooked. My best advice would be to buy unfrozen meat and bring it home and separate it into Freezer bags.

Answer 5

Once you take meat out of the freezer you cannot refreeze it unless you cook it first

Answer 6

ONCE YOU START TO DEFROST YOU HAVE TO USE IT .you chance bacteria growth but also increased chance of freezer burn. and decrease in texture and taste

Answer 7

i do stuff like that all the time. as long as you cook the meat fully to kill all bacteria, i dont see the harm.

Answer 8

Don't re-freeze meat....never a good idea.

Answer 9

Re-freezing thawed meat is a definite NO NO period. It leads to food poisoning so please don't do it unless you want to live dangerously.

Answer 10

when you re freeze meat you could get bacteria and that is bad you could get sick