It has to be wrapped well enough that no leaked freezer air gets to it. Thin plastic wrap isn’t good enough. Squeeze all the air out of the bag you use. I reuse cereal bags for this; they’re thick enough to keep all the air out.
I just put the package of ground meat in the freezer. Maybe that’s my mistake? I was counting on the cellophane wrapping to seal the meat. There may have been a pinhole in the wrapping that I didn’t notice. That would explain that quarter sized freezer burn.
I’ll start putting the package in a Ziploc freezer bag. Write the date on the bag with a sharpie.
I remove meat from the store packaging (without touching it with my hands) and seal it with a FoodSaver vacuum sealer. I’ve kept meat frozen for well over a year, and I don’t recall ever getting freezer burn.
I’m buying three packages of ground meat this afternoon. 2 for the freezer. I’ll wrap well in Saran Wrap and then Ziploc bag. They should be reusable? Meat already wrapped in Saran Wrap shouldn’t contaminate them?
I’ll consider getting a FoodSaver vacuum sealer. They’re pricey.
It would be worth it to keep meat fresh as possible in the freezer.
Vacuum sealers are less than $30 now. You can get bags that are basically just a long tube; you just cut to length and seal one end, put your stuff in, and vacuum seal it. If you leave extra room, you can even reuse the bag after you cut it open.
Last year either Woot or Meh had a fantastic close-out deal on a vacuum sealer, so I bought one. Later, they re-offered it at an even better price, that was actually less than the cost of the roll of bag material included with the device. I bought many. I gave a few away and the rest I have stored away for future use.
Another vote for a vacuum sealer. Doesn’t have to be Food Saver brand. I have a Sears brand that I bought 15 years ago and it still works just fine. You also don’t have to use the Food Saver bags, although they’re probably the best quality. Vacuum sealed food will keep about a year on average, perhaps longer. It also allows you to buy the larger (and cheaper) quantity packages at Costco. We buy the packages of lamb chops, and divide them into four packages of two for sealing.
Whatever you can do to keep the air away from what you are freezing.
Probably not good for ground meat, but I dig a lot of razor clams during the season and after they are cleaned I put them in a large Ziploc bag and fill the bag with water and then run the top of the bag over an edge forcing all the air out. Then I lay them flat in the freezer. Essentially freezing them inside a casing of ice. Then I can stack them in the freezer and they will keep for several years and come out just like fresh (well, close to fresh). Works well for fish filets too. The ice prevents any exposure to air.
Vacuum sealer, like everyone else has said. But I think the best way to prevent it is to get a chest freezer that doesn’t have the auto-defrost cycle like most freezers. That regular warming and re-cooling is probably the biggest contributor to frozen food decline. Take a tray of ice and leave it in an auto-defrosting freezer and put one in a freezer without it and compare in one month. Taste the ice. The difference in size and taste is amazing.
Another option is to wrap meat in plastic, and then wrap that in aluminum foil. I then stick that whole thing into a ziplock freezer bag. Plastic wrap and plastic bags are often permeable to air, so it will allow freezer burn. As stated, vacuum seal bags work well. The trick to that, particularly with ground meat, is to freeze it before vacuum sealing it. So, take the meat out of the store packaging, otherwise that absorbent pad under the meat will freeze to it, then put the meat on a plate or something and leave it in the freezer overnight or so, then vacuum seal the frozen block of meat. That isn’t strictly necessary, but vacuum sealing normal ground meat will compress it, and suck raw meat juice into your vacuum sealer.
Freezer burn is caused when the water in the frozen meat sublimates into gaseous water without melting. So in effect, the meat is freeze-drying due to exposure to the air of the freezer. This causes it to oxidize as well. The duo of dehydration and oxidation cause unpleasant taste and texture changes.
The best way around it is to tightly seal your meat so that it’s not exposed to outside air. I’ve found that a vacuum sealer like a Food Saver or whatever does a terrific job of preventing freezer burn.
I believe this is mostly a matter of thickness. LLDPE does have some (low) permeance. So a thicker wall will have lower permeability. The freezer bags feel thicker to me.
I wrap ground beef in Saran Wrap and then aluminum foil, and other types of meat in Saran Wrap and then a freezer bag. Individual chops and steaks all get wrapped separately.
Never have had freezer burn, though we don’t keep stuff for a year.
We also inventory the freezer before going shopping each week so we can plan meals around what we have and so things don’t get lost.