# What can be done to avoid freezer burn? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390 "2019-04-11T14:49:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/21 "2019-04-11T19:39:16Z")
You can save a lot of Saran by buying some brown paper bags at the $ store. Fold the bag around whatever you’re freezing, write on the bag what’s in it, date, etc, then the zip lock bag. The brown paper provides a lot more insulation. The zip locks are totally reusable for ages as long as you remove that first layer before defrosting. Uses a lot less plastic, costs less than Saran! ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/22 "2019-04-11T20:47:28Z")
And what purpose does this “insulation” serve? What is it insulating _from?_ ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/23 "2019-04-11T21:20:33Z")
I can keep meat for years by wrapping: 1. In a layer of Saran wrap, push out air. 2. Over that, a layer of freezer paper, shiny side in, push out air. This is paper labeled for freezer use, not waxed paper, not parchment paper. Vacuum sealers are fine though an investment. If you meat has bones or sharp corners poking out, they may puncture the bag and make it moot, YMMV. Cheap ones may not do as well with liquids and such than expensive ones. You shouldn’t be throwing away an entire package just because a corner got hit. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/24 "2019-04-11T21:33:56Z")
If you are putting the grocery store wrapped package in the freezer, that’s the mistake. They deliberately use air permeable wrap so that the meat looks nice and red where some air gets to it, and they’ve conditioned people to think meat should be bright red. You may have noticed that the inside of a package of hamburger is sort of greyish or purplish. That’s actually the normal color of the meat - they’re not wrapping up spoiled meat with fresh meat, which is what people occasionally think. Take the store wrap off and just use your own plastic wrap. Saran wrap, etc, probably isn’t the best sealer, but it’s better than the store wrap. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/25 "2019-04-11T22:19:28Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > If you are putting the grocery store wrapped package in the freezer, that’s the mistake. They deliberately use air permeable wrap so that the meat looks nice and red where some air gets to it, and they’ve conditioned people to think meat should be bright red. You may have noticed that the inside of a package of hamburger is sort of greyish or purplish. That’s actually the normal color of the meat - they’re not wrapping up spoiled meat with fresh meat, which is what people occasionally think. > > Take the store wrap off and just use your own plastic wrap. Saran wrap, etc, probably isn’t the best sealer, but it’s better than the store wrap. That and they use carbon monoxide to keep the meat artificially red. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/26 "2019-04-11T23:02:13Z")
You do know people go in grocery stores and poke holes in the plastic with their nasty fingers, don’t you? Any meat I buy comes out of the store wrap immediately. Rewrapped and into fridge or freezer. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/27 "2019-04-11T23:51:20Z")
I don’t trust any plastic wrapping that the food comes in from the supermarket. Since I often divide large quantities into single-serving portions anyway, everything gets re-bagged in ziplock baggies of appropriate size. Seems to work. 2 lbs of bulk Italian sausage becomes 8 patties in individual bags. Saran wrap, by itself, is no good. It doesn’t stay together in the freezer. It might be good inside a baggie, but what’s the point? Just use the baggie. Many bakery items come in bags that are deliberately perforated (for ventilation?), the worst kind for freezer storage. If I get a bunch of rolls, I re-bag half in ziplocks for the freezer and the rest stay in the original bag on the counter for a few days as they are used. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/28 "2019-04-12T00:03:27Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > You do know people go in grocery stores and poke holes in the plastic with their nasty fingers, don’t you? Any meat I buy comes out of the store wrap immediately. Rewrapped and into fridge or freezer. I hadn’t considered that people poke the packaging. The grocery plastic is very thin. I buy throw away food Server gloves from Sams Club. They’d be useful in removing the wrapping without touching the meat with my fingers. Also keeps my hands clean too. Rewrap in freezer paper and then into a Ziploc bag. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/29 "2019-04-12T03:33:33Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > 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. Yep, you’re right. Good call! ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/30 "2019-04-12T06:39:13Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I hadn’t considered that people poke the packaging. The grocery plastic is very thin. > > I buy throw away food Server gloves from Sams Club. They’d be useful in removing the wrapping without touching the meat with my fingers. Also keeps my hands clean too. > > Rewrap in freezer paper and then into a Ziploc bag. Go hang around the meat counter at your grocery store. Its amazing what people will do trying to choose. My next gross out place is the fresh produce. The idea that someone puts a cantaloupe up to their nose makes me pukey. Yeah, I’m bored and a germaphobe. Deadly combo. ETA, I’m not too concerned about my own germs getting on MY meat. My own germs are fresh!🙂 ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/31 "2019-04-12T07:39:02Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > If you are putting the grocery store wrapped package in the freezer, that’s the mistake. They deliberately use air permeable wrap so that the meat looks nice and red where some air gets to it, and they’ve conditioned people to think meat should be bright red. You may have noticed that the inside of a package of hamburger is sort of greyish or purplish. That’s actually the normal color of the meat - they’re not wrapping up spoiled meat with fresh meat, which is what people occasionally think. > > Take the store wrap off and just use your own plastic wrap. Saran wrap, etc, probably isn’t the best sealer, but it’s better than the store wrap. This. They have changed this in recent years. I’m guessing that the plastic manufacturers recently developed these new wraps that allow oxygen (and water vapor) pass through, so the meat remains red. Frost-free freezers don’t help, as the defrost cycle removes moisture, but the best solution is what has already been said; vacuum seal bags. Mylar bags are best, although I have had good experience with the standard plastic ones. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/32 "2019-04-12T08:00:51Z")
now most of the ground meat we buy come in those “chubs” like ground sausage looking packages… even a 10 pound flat of meat is just 5 or 10 1lb chubs wrapped on a tray is it safe to just put a chub in the freezer or should I put it in a Ziploc bag also ? it looks like this [Ground Beef Chub Pack - Bing](https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=2AC1037C35E642FE4013BFC8B6CE746550C5F873&thid=OIP.2I7xWTdc0zni140FfqnTtQHaD9&mediaurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cargillgroundbeef.com%2Fimages%2Fimg-learn-packaging-chub-r2.png&exph=274&expw=512&q=Ground+Beef+Chub+Pack&selectedindex=2&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=1,2,6) ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/33 "2019-04-12T12:31:05Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > My next gross out place is the fresh produce. The idea that someone puts a cantaloupe up to their nose makes me pukey. As someone who worked produce at Safeway for years, I’ll agree that’s gross, but not because they put _their_ nose on it, but rather because they touched _it_ to their nose. I can’t tell you how many times the produce truck showed up at the store with the pallets toppled over and produce scattered everywhere around the trailer, which we and the driver would proceed to collect _and put right back into the boxes_. They don’t wash those trailers out nearly as often as they probably should, and our walk-in produce fridge wasn’t much better. The only produce _we_ ever washed in-store was the lettuce, and it was really just a cold water bath; the purpose was to re-crisp the leaves and to get some of the dirt and silt out, but mostly just to re-crisp the leaves (it’s a really good trick if you have wilted lettuce). ALWAYS wash your produce. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/34 "2019-04-12T14:57:02Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > The idea that someone puts a cantaloupe up to their nose makes me pukey. How else are you going to know that it’s ripe? Same with strawberries. Ripeness with those two is best determined by their aroma, in my experience. You usually don’t have to actually touch it to your nose though- a sniff is all it takes. That said, that’s one of the many reasons they suggest you wash your produce before you eat it! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/35 "2019-04-12T15:06:42Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > That and they use carbon monoxide to keep the meat artificially red. Controlled atmosphere packaging isn’t just limited to meat; how do you think all that bagged cut salad doesn’t turn brown particularly fast? All they do is adjust the mixture of gases that the product is packaged with- in the case of beef, they do one of two things- either a tiny amount of CO (0.4%) along with N (69.6%) and CO2 (30%), so that the red color is produced, and bacterial growth is inhibited (spoilage bacteria are apparently aerobic), or they use 80% O2 / 20% CO2, which achieves the same thing- apparently 20% CO2 inhibits bacterial growth even in the presence of 80% O2. With other meats, the red color isn’t as important, so more CO2 is typically used. In the case of fruit/vegetables, CO2 and O2 levels are both at 3-5%, with nitrogen making up the balance. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/36 "2019-04-12T15:27:41Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > now most of the ground meat we buy come in those “chubs” like ground sausage looking packages… even a 10 pound flat of meat is just 5 or 10 1lb chubs wrapped on a tray > > is it safe to just put a chub in the freezer or should I put it in a Ziploc bag also ? > > it looks like this [Ground Beef Chub Pack - Search](https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=2AC1037C35E642FE4013BFC8B6CE746550C5F873&thid=OIP.2I7xWTdc0zni140FfqnTtQHaD9&mediaurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cargillgroundbeef.com%2Fimages%2Fimg-learn-packaging-chub-r2.png&exph=274&expw=512&q=Ground+Beef+Chub+Pack&selectedindex=2&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=1,2,6) How are you defrosting those? It would be way easier on you if you took the time to make the meat into patties and wrap & freeze. Defrost time for patties is so much faster than defrosting a hunk like that. Even if you end up making meatballs or browning it for chili, you can defrost the appropriate amount of patties (most people make 1/4 lb patties before freezing) before re-forming the meat. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2019, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/37 "2019-04-12T16:08:44Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Vacuum sealers are fine though an investment. If you meat has bones or sharp corners poking out, they may puncture the bag and make it moot, YMMV. Cheap ones may not do as well with liquids and such than expensive ones. I bought a Food Saver vacuum sealer about two years ago and have been using it for putting up meat for some time. When CostCo has NY steaks at $6.50 a pound for a four or six pack, I buy a tray and eat one right away, and put the remainder in a vacuum bag for later. They get used before a year is up but are perfectly fine after three or four months; twelve should be no problem. Likewise I often will run five one-pound chubs of sausage through my pellet smoker and freeze four of them. The VS plastic is sturdy enough I heat them in a simmering waterbath to reheat – avoiding the spotty temp and drying out a microwave does. A full boil sometimes makes the bag leak. Rather than try and vacuum seal something wet like a soup or stew, I freeze it in a small container overnight, then seal the resulting block. [Vacuum chambers](https://smile.amazon.com/VAC-VIDA-VS301-Constructed-Stainless-Restaurant/dp/B0795WYL1H/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3C8AKHQS78PTS&keywords=vacuum+chamber+sealer&qid=1555084854&s=gateway&sprefix=vacuum+chamber%2Caps%2C193&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1) will handle the wet stuff just fine but are awfully pricey compared to the ordinary sealer. Since their plastic does not need to have the textured side as do regular sealer bags, it’s about half as much per bag, but it would take an awfully long time for me to pay off the price difference at the rate I am using the sealer. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/38 "2019-04-13T01:11:00Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Yep, you’re right. Good call! Other than getting permeance and permeability backwards :smack: ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/39 "2019-04-13T10:07:37Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > How are you defrosting those? It would be way easier on you if you took the time to make the meat into patties and wrap & freeze. Defrost time for patties is so much faster than defrosting a hunk like that. > > Even if you end up making meatballs or browning it for chili, you can defrost the appropriate amount of patties (most people make 1/4 lb patties before freezing) before re-forming the meat. we just put them in a bowl of water …. takes about an hour or so ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2019, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390/40 "2019-04-13T13:26:46Z")
I defrost overnight in the fridge. Take the meat out to cook 30 minutes before putting on the grill. That’s what my cookbooks recommend. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-be-done-to-avoid-freezer-burn/832390.md?page=3)