FREEZER Questions

[Popbiscuit]

Okay, I know I should know the answer to the first one but I don't so hoping someone out there might be able to explain.

Why can you not re-freeze meat that has already been frozen? For example...We often buy meat in bulk and then I portion it out and defrost as needed to make chilli, bolognese etc. Once it's cooked, why can you not refreeze it? Is it dangerous or just a texture thing? I often think it would be ideal to take out several packages of meat to cook and then freeze the finished product ( I know I should cook it right away and then freeze but my shopping days never seem to work out like that).
Second question is about freezing cheese? Anyone do this? My MIL insists that you can but I'm a bit skeptical...

The answers to both of those questions are - you can.

The reason you shouldn't re-freeze meat is that every time meat is allowed to warm up, bacteria in it multiply. If it's not quite heated enough for long enough, there are some left when you freeze it. A couple of cycles of this and you could be in for a nasty dose of food poisoning. Safer to never re-freeze than try to remember how many times it's been done

Cheese will freeze - I've tried it for cheddar, with no effect on the taste or texture. I suspect ripe Brie wouldn't like it though.

You can defrost, cook it, then freeze the cooked dish. I do anyway, no food poisoning for 38 years so far!

Thanks for all your replies X

it is perfectly safe to defrost frozen raw foods, cook and then re-freeze into cooked portions. You shouldnt defrost and then re-freeze without cooking it though. We have portions of curry sauce, bolognese sauce, beef chilli, cheese sauce, mashed potato, etc in the freezer.

Grated cheese freezes fantastic.

The reason you shouldn't defrost then refreeze raw food is because it increases the risk of bugs growing during the two defrostings, hence food poisoning.

But if you cook it then refreeze you'll have killed everything off, if you see what I mean.

Cheese is best frozen grated, in bags. It will freeze quite happily in blocks, though, but it may become a little more crumbly/dry.

Ok. Super! That certainly makes life easier.

Of COURSE you can refreeze meat once it is cooked as long as you defrost properly and re heat til it is PIPING hot. Think of all the ready made frozen meals there are in the supermarket............

What you MUSTN'T do is defrost meat and then re freeze without cooking it first.

Of COURSE you can freeze cheese - frozen pizza?