Get in mah belly, belly
September 28, 2009 2:58 PM

Safe to eat raw refrozen meats that've been defrosted several times?

I bought a slab of vacuum sealed raw pork belly and tried to turn this specimen into delicious BACON, but due to scheduling problems, etc. never got around to actually cooking it.

I'd defrost the meat in the fridge in the morning, only to find out later that night that I couldn't cook and 3 days later end up throwing it back into the freezer. The slab's gone through about 3 of these cycles of defrosting and refreezing.

Is it still safe to eat?
posted by chalbe to Food & Drink (5 answers total)
Safe, yes. tasty? probably not.
posted by GuyZero at 3:00 PM on September 28, 2009


Might be quality issues because of moisture loss due to repeated freezing, but if you've defrosted in the fridge and not on the counter-top (BAD) or in running water (acceptable), you should be fine.
posted by cooker girl at 3:10 PM on September 28, 2009


Texture is probably all weird, but shouldn't be dangerous as long as you've kept it at fridge temps.
posted by electroboy at 3:16 PM on September 28, 2009


Probably safe, but the texture will be lousy. Try grinding it and using it in an appropriate dish because it won't make good bacon.

For best results, frozen raw meat should be cooked after thawing. You can then freeze the dish made with cooked meat, and thaw and serve the cooked dish one more time, but if you re-freeze the cooked dish, the texture and taste will suffer.
posted by maudlin at 3:48 PM on September 28, 2009


It's high in fat, and may be okay. Bacon freezes really well, so uncured pork belly might, also.
posted by theora55 at 4:59 PM on September 28, 2009


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