I had a bag of mixed seafood in the freezer. I put it in the fridge Thursday morning to thaw for supper Thursday night. I ended up getting very ill and unable to cook it that night. It is still in my fridge in its original unopened package. The package states, “Keep frozen until used.” And “Best if used by 09/09/2014.” If I’m not going to use it tomorrow night, should I put it back in the freezer? Or should I leave it in the fridge? Will it be ok for awhile? I guess I’m not too concerned (but concerned enough to ask you guys) because it’s always been at a safe temp. and, heck, it’s ok for almost two more years. What do you think?
It’s only been defrosted entirely for probably something like 2.5 days. Cooking it tomorrow means 3 days, and it’s been refrigerated the whole time.
I wouldn’t worry, but I wouldn’t let it go must past tomorrow.
It depends how cold your refrigerator and freezer are. Since it’s been several days already, the seafood has begun to deteriorate already. But the growth of bacteria will be slow if the seafood is kept below 40F. I believe the recommendation is to eat thawed seafood within 48 hours as long as it’s been kept below 40F. Even if your seafood didn’t completely thaw until Friday morning, that would be more than 48 hours now. Personally I wouldn’t eat it, but I may be fussier about that than other people.
With seafood, the really short “good” times in the refrigerator aren’t entirely due to bacterial spoilage, but rather because many fish live in temperatures not too far from the refrigerator, so the enzymes in the muscle tissue continue to break it down even while in the fridge. Beef, pork and chicken are warm blooded, so refrigerating them tends to shut those enzymes down or at least significantly slow them down.
The fish is probably safe to eat, but may have suffered in texture and taste vs. when it was originally defrosted.
I highly recommend NOT eating it. It might taste and smell perfectly normal (for seafood) but if it makes you sick you are going to be one unhappy puppy.
Take it from a guy who ate seafood from just ONE day in the fridge.
Yeah, I will second this. Been there, done that.
It wasn’t pretty. Or fun.
If it matters, it’s Great American Seafood: Seafood Combinations. Fully cooked before frozen. I still think it’s fine to eat, but I will definitely go with the majority, which (so far) is “don’t do it.”
I’d eat it (cook it extra, just to be safe), but I wouldn’t refreeze it.
:smack:
As a southerner who was raised with regular access to fresh seafood, as in caught that day, I always knew freshness was the key to good seafood. Though I never exactly why or bothered to find out. Thanks for the education there.
I’ve always suspected some fraction of folks that aren’t that keen on seafood have never had fresh fresh stuff cooked properly.
As for eating it. If I was rubbing pennies together I’d have a hard time throwing away some valuable seafood. If money isn’t that much of an issue I wouldn’t.
On the other hand, like others have said, getting sick on bad food ain’t no fun. I got food poisioning from a gas station ham sandwich a few weeks back. No sleep for about 3 days and nights, severe chills, managing to keep down about 2 cans of soup, and probably 3 dozen scalding hot LONG showers. Fun times.
“Take it from a guy who ate seafood from just ONE day in the fridge”
What? You never buy fish and eat it the next day? I do it all the time.
My part was an extremely abbreviated and rough paraphrase of what Harold McGee says in “On Food and Cooking” about seafood freshness and storage, for what that’s worth.
I totally agree on the idea that a lot of people who don’t like seafood haven’t had fresh seafood prepared correctly. My wife was like that, but would eat sushi(!) until I convinced her to go to a couple of places in Boston, Houston, Galveston and Dallas that have good seafood, and she turned around 180 degrees and really likes it now.
Money is definitely a concern right now and I just hate throwing away an unopened bag of anything, especially seafood. I’m just recovering from a bout of some kind of stomach thing, though…so best not risk it, I guess. Just seems weird to me that a food item which could be kept frozen for 2 more years and still be good can’t hang out for several days in the fridge.
If it was already precooked, I’d think this would make it less of an issue, just as you can put leftovers in the fridge and it will be fine for several days (I also do this to stuff that is supposed to be frozen - precooked of course and haven’t ever gotten sick, if not seafood). The heat should also deactivate the enzymes that break it down, unless I’m wrong (otherwise, stuff like canned fish should be really nasty, not even being refrigerated).
The seafood I ate that had been in the fridge for about 24-36 hours was pre-cooked too.
Didn’t help me from literally passing out in a chair and then waking up to myself covered in vomit some undisclosed amount of time later.
I don’t risk it when it comes to seafood, no matter what! I may have just gotten really unlucky but… 
welp, it’s no fun to get sick from sea food.
So much ignorance in this post, it hurts. If you don’t know jack shit about food bourne illness, don’t post about it GQ.
The statements in his post may be completely accurate. You simply inferred the relationship between the seafood he ate and the subsequent illness.