Why should you not refreeze meat after it has been defrosted? What are the consequences of eating meat after it has been refrozen?

The reason I ask is because I've just purchaced some spicy chicken wings from Jack Fultons, and now face nearly a 3 hour journey back to my freezer.

Some advice here :http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/02-19-04.html

If it's thawing in a fridge it shouldn't be a problem (except the quality of the meat will degrade and as it is Jack Fulton's...well enough said).

If your worried about it cook the lot and freeze what you don't eat.

Nomme

Cheers nomme. That still doesn't tell me if I could become ill as a consequence of eating it though.

Also, the wings have already been cooked once, they only need to be heated up in the oven. If I now heat them up again, will it then be safe to freeze them, and then warm them up again? How many times can you do this?

Ah I see.

In that case I would cook the lot and eat them as soon as possible. (i.e. don't refreeze)

What does it say on the packet?

Nomme (yay! 4 bananas!)

Nice signature Nomme. Brian Eno fan, Eh?:D

Originally posted by draggletail
Nice signature Nomme. Brian Eno fan, Eh?:D

Not the only one it would seem. :thumbsup:

Nomme

Originally posted by nomme
Ah I see.

In that case I would cook the lot and eat them as soon as possible. (i.e. don't refreeze)

What does it say on the packet?

Nomme (yay! 4 bananas!)
It says don't refreeze, but I've thrown all advice out the window and frozen them anyway. I let you know what happens.

make sure when you recook them that they are really really really hot! nothing worse than dodgy chicken, well, prawns!!

Don't remind me!! I once got really really ill after eating dodgy prawns! I was bed-ridden for 2 days!

Originally posted by Sidla
Don't remind me!! I once got really really ill after eating dodgy prawns! I was bed-ridden for 2 days!

Did you re-freeze them too? :rolleyes: :thumbsup:

Well in the summer, I had a kebab pizza. Ate half of it, and put the other half in a take-away box. That was a Wednesday night. I put the box on the floor in my car, left it there in the warmth on Wednesday night, all Thursday and Friday and decided I was hungry on Friday afternoon...

Microwave jobby, tasted a bit funky but still good enough for me!

Another time when I had a BBQ, I was well starving and pretty drunk. I just slapped a frozen burger on, saw it get defrosted and stuck it between 2 slices of bread.

I guess you can say I'm lucky to be alive :thumbsup:

As was said, just recook thoroughly and you might get away with it.

the risk is that the stuff defrosts, sits around and gets a nice bug colony growing in it. Then you freeze the whole lot (which also freezes the bugs and any toxins they make) and defrost. The bugs are still there and in the defrost process pop up again and start doing whatever bugs do.

If you don't cook it properly there's a shedload of bugs still in there.

And, with some bugs (like botulism) if you DO cook it properly and kill the bugs there's still the toxins they produce that can clobber you....

I am not an expert...but I was always told to be VERY careful with seafood, pork and chicken. I've managed to get away with being less careful with beef and lamb, but I wouldn't risk it.

Joe

Now I don't recal the exact bits from my Health and Hygiene cert, since I never have to ue it but reheated food should be heated to over 72 degress for some time to kill the standard bugs.
It isn't possible to kill spores in a domestic environment since it has to be heated to over 110 degrees for over 5 hours. (Like UHT milk)
Spores develop at rooms temps but refridgeration will halt the process or slow it down.
I also agree that you should be ok but I don't recommend doing it regularly since you cannot be sure about what situation the food was in before packing and it could already have spores.
As a general rule, the hotter you can get the food before eating it the safer you are.