Im running out of freezer space, can i store frozen foods in the refrigerator or is there a risk of bacterial growth in there?
I notice some frozen foods like frozen pizza have 2 seperate cooking times, one for frozen and one for refrigerated, so im assuming with some foods its ok to store them in the refrigerator but i would need some kind of evidence that bacterial growth is not likely in a refrigerator’s temperature.
Depending on your fridge, there is a way to use the top level of your fridge as extra freezer space (assuming freezer on top). Our freezer used to be set to its coldest level, while our fridge was on its second-coldest level. Liquids (milk, OJ, soft drinks) would freeze or form surface ice crystals when stored on the top shelf of the fridge.
This was undesirable for us, so we adjusted the settings. But for you, it might help. Test it out first – make sure you can make ice cubes on your top fridge shelf before storing something highly perishable like raw meat. And even then, plan to use the items earlier than you might if stored in the freezer.
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Aside from that, it really depends on what you want to store. I’ve stored processed frozen foods like individually-wrapped burritos, hash browns, and TV dinners in my 40-degree fridge. I’ve seen no ill effects at all, except that you have to cook them for a shorter time than the package indicates. Still, I never tried to store these foods in the fridge long-term, as one would do in a freezer.
Frozen veggies? I don’t see the harm of putting plastic bags of frozen veggies in the fridge. The squarish cardboard containers sweat a lot, though, and can make a watery mess in the fridge.
As for raw meat or fish – if you aren’t cooking it within 48 hours (24 hrs for germophobes), forget it. Toss those popsicles out (or whatever) and make room.
Ah. well i have 2 reasons for asking. one is because i dont have alot of room in the freezer for all my frozen pizzas and another is that my brother likes to leave chicken in the refrigerator so it thaws. ive always been afraid him doing this will lead to a salmonella outbreak as the germ will spread.
he wants his chicken to be thawed so he can cook it at will but at the same time id like to not worry about pathogenic bacteria growing out of control in the refrigerator.
Maybe a thawing plate will work, maybe locking the chicken up in a bag, maybe using the thaw function on the microwave.
Your brother’s method of thawing frozen meat is not only safe, it is the recommended method. Meat should not be thawed at room temperature, nor under warm water. And cooking frozen meat might not kill dormant pathogens, since the temperature at the center may not get high enough. Once thawed, thorough cooking should destroy all pathogens anyway.
Thawing a frozen chicken in the refrigerator is the correct method. That prevents the growth of bacteria in the chicken. It is quickly thawing poultry where things go bad, in fact, the microwave is the worst place to defrost a chicken.
I have found removing items from boxes is one of the best ways to make room in a freezer. Why does the box need to be cold? Clip out the cooking instuctions and tape to the wrapper. Items that are unwrapped inside the box can be placed in a zip lock type bag.
Thank god. He usually keeps a few pieces of chicken and they are usually only a foot away from something like an open bag of fruit, i was afraid some of the bacteria would transfer if it could grow in the refrigerator.
Presumably said chicken is inside a bag or other container? If so, then any bacteria are not going to get to the fruit anyway. If for some reason the raw meat is unwrapped, yeah, there is bound to be some accidental contact and the fruit could well become contaminated.
The next time you go to the grocery store, why not get an inexpensive throw-away aluminum pan that you can place in the refrigerator for your brother’s chicken pieces to sit in? That way, if any juices should accidentally leak out of the packaging while the chicken is thawing, they’ll be trapped in the pan and won’t contact any of the other food in the refrigerator. Once the chicken’s been cooked, you can wash the pan out with some dish soap and hot water to clean it, then put it back in the refrigerator all nice and clean and ready for the next batch of meat in need of thawing.
I thaw all my meat in an aluminum pan in the refrigerator - it’s safe and avoids any risk of food poisoning.
does this apply to all meats or just chicken? what about hamburger can E.Coli and whatever else could be in that thrive in refrigerator temperatures.
Uncooked (and thawing) meat should be stored on the lowest shelf in the fridge, to eliminate the risk of dripping onto other foods - foods which you will eat without cooking (yoghurt, prepared sandwiches) should be stored at that top, as they will be out of the way and they should not themselves be a risk of contamination - unwashed vegetables (which you will wash before preparing, so may contain small amounts of dirt), should be stored in the middle; above the raw meat but below the foods that will be eaten straight from the fridge.
Most refrigerators have a salad drawer at the bottom with a loose glass lid, which is wrong because juices from raw and thawing meats can drip into it.