First, I have always heard that once you freez and defrost meat, that you should not refreez it. The idea is that it will not tast good if it is refrozen.
I am a cook at a restaurant. This is the only restaurant I have ever worked at, so I have no other info to go on.
We always refreez meat. If too many steakes are pulled out, the big boss says to put some back in the freezer. No matter if they were thawed for 2 days. He says that as long as it is packaged right, it will be fine.
Now, that does make since to me. But it goes against everything I have ever heard.
And second, we try to defrost things ahead of time by pulling it from the freezer and moving it to the cooler. But in the end, at least half of the meat is defrosted on the table.
The boss has us pull the box of steaks from the freezer, put them in a tray and leave it on teh table untill it is defrosted. If you need it fast, he has us put it in water. Warm (not hot) water if you need it very fast.
This also goes against what I have been told.
So, are these things ok?
You can certainly refreeze meat, it’s just that the more often you do it the more the taste degrades. So - freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw isn’t that bad, particularly if it winds up in a soup or stew, but keep cycling and eventually it will taste bleeeeeech. Speed of freezing, packaging, and other variables come into play as well. This gets complicated, so for a rule of thumb “freeze only once” will give the most people the best results.
As for defrosting at room temperature - you are raising the risk of problems. When food is properly handled in very clean conditions this risk isn’t huge (although it is present). However, most home kitchens are not as clean as you might think, with much bacterial contamination on surfaces. Thus, the risks are greater in home kitchens (unless you have a fanatically clean situation). The safest course is to thaw in the refrigerator, but then, it’s safest to cook meat well done and people often choose not to do that, either.
Unless the food is irradiated or something, bacteria may well already be in/on it, just not in sufficiently large populations to cause a problem, especially as you’re cooking it.
One of the biggest problems with repeatedly thawing and refreezing is that it’s easy to completely lose track of how long - in total - the food has been kept at temperatures where bacterial growth is possible. And this is especially a concern if the thawing is done at room temperature or warmer.
Five separate hours at room temperature, with refreezing in between them, is the same as five hours in one straight session, as freezing doesn’t kill bacteria.
I’m sure the practice is widespread, but it’s not a good one - and probably breaks health and hygiene regulations (depending on how they are defined in your locality, I guess)
Ain’t the safest thing to do and it is recommended you** not** refreeze meat that has thawed. Cook it after it thaws and freeze the cooked portion. You are entering an ‘unkown’ zone, because you do not know how many pathogens and how much multiplying you allowed upon thawing:
Both of these practices in a commerical kitchen will get you a violation in a health inspection in virtually any jurisdiction. Meat should not be thawed at room temperature. I think that defrosting in *cold running * water might be OK but definitely not warm standing water.