Rinsing food and Refreezing

[Ross]

Does anyone out there rince a large batch of frozen food and then refreeze it?

I know this is a big no no for food destine for human consumption, but I cant see any issues if you are using warm water to defrost fish food and then back into the freezer a few minutes later.

It's not like your defrosting a chicken in the fridge for 2 days then refreezing it later.


Any thoughts?

[ALang]

Why you would want to do that?
I think that when you thaw out foods, you allow bacteria to grow on it. You cannot flash freeze the food fast enough for it not to maybe have a small amount of spoilage. And we really don't want any of that in our fish's stomach, more chance of them gettin ill. Dunno.

[frd72]

i make my own fish food. I use seafood medley, basically thaw it and then use blender to chop it. Then go back to the freezer again. Been doing that for months now and notice nothing but good effects on my fish..:lol:
No preservatives i guess if i do it this way..Just sharing my experience.

[xtreme]

I know numerous people who have made homemade mixtures including myself. I thawed everything out briefly so I was able to mix it up. Then it was promptly re-frozen. I was a little hesitant to do this but I didn't see any ill effects with my fish. Not sure of other peoples methods but I don't see how you could mix various foods or pre-rinse in your case without thawing them?

[christyf5]

I do it all the time, as long as it stays cool you're good to go.

[ScubaSteve]

When you say sea food medley... are you talking about the prepackaged bags of sea food? If so, be warnede: it is LOADED with nitrates and phosphates.

[frd72]

When you say sea food medley... are you talking about the prepackaged bags of sea food? If so, be warnede: it is LOADED with nitrates and phosphates.

That's right from TNT supermarket. How??

[ScubaSteve]

Unless the packaging says zero nitrates/phosphates or it is very high quality there will be a sizable amount there. Largely it depends on the source...

If the seafood is farmed (a surprising amount of shrimp, prawn and oyster prepackaged in the stores are) N/P will be high because they don't do water changes until about 2-3 weeks before harvesting. Water changes are costly but N/P cause crappy flavours (if you've ever had cheap prawns that taste "muddy" this is why), so they change the water just before harvesting to try and pull N/P our of the animals systems. We won't taste it but the N/P levels are still high.

If they are fresh caught and frozen, the seafood still can become laden with N/P due to the equimpent and process water in the packaging facility. A lot of dead sea critters will leave behind quite a bit of mess which then starts to break down. Again, we won't taste it but it's there.

The only way you can ensure that your sea food is mostly N/P free is to go to a fishmonger and buy the sea food fresh caught and hasn't been through processing. You can then wash it, smoosh it and freeze it yourself.

I'm not talkin' out of my a** here. I've been learning this stuff over the past year as I am developing denitrator technologies for fish farming and water treatment tech for drinking water. Since learning this I only buy fresh now and since then my nitrates and phosphates dropped off the charts (well until a recent filter incident that is...).

[ScubaSteve]

I forgot to mention... this is why you rinse... so you're definitely doing the right thing by thawing and rinsing. It's the stuff that is IN the flesh of the meat that you can't get at you have to worry about and that is more an issue if you don't know where it is coming from.

[Leah]

So I guess the frozen fish foods we buy would be the same if not worse?

[ScubaSteve]

Yeah, I've always wondered the same thing. I avoid the brine shrimp partly because of this (and because they're low in nutritional value) but I will feed mysid shrimp. I'll let my mysid soak in RO/DI for a bit to thaw and try to draw some of the N/P out, rinse, then feed.

I don't think the mysid, for example, have high N/P in their bodies as they are farmed from a lake up North and are flashed frozen rather than processed in the way a prawn would be. I laways rinse them to remove the liquid they were frozen with.

It'd be great if a manufacturer could give some details on things like N/P.

[ALang]

Wow, things you learn from this forum. And innocent question can sure turn into something very enlightening!
Thanks for sharing that, Scubasteve!

[banditpowdercoat]

I refreeze food all the time. I even refreeze hamburger. As long as it's cooked thourally before you eat...

[FitoPharmer]

I refreeze food all the time. I even refreeze hamburger. As long as it's cooked thourally before you eat...
I thought that was only to a point. "If raw meats have been mishandled (left in the "Danger Zone" too long), bacteria may grow and produce toxins which can cause foodborne illness. Those toxins that are heat resistant are not destroyed by cooking. Therefore, even though cooked, meat and poultry mishandled in the raw state may not be safe to eat even after proper preparation."

[banditpowdercoat]

I thought that was only to a point. "If raw meats have been mishandled (left in the "Danger Zone" too long), bacteria may grow and produce toxins which can cause foodborne illness. Those toxins that are heat resistant are not destroyed by cooking. Therefore, even though cooked, meat and poultry mishandled in the raw state may not be safe to eat even after proper preparation."


Well ya. I guess I shoulda explaned more. I'll unthaw hamburger, in the fridge, then change dinner plans and re freeze etc. Even made paddies and froze them.But ya if it's past its prime, then nothing can save it. Thing with bacteria, is it lived on the outside of meats. So a steak, or roast, the outside gets cooked first and most. Now Hamburger is all made up of outsides, all inside, everyside. So thats why Hamburger has to be cooked all the way.

[ScubaSteve]

Wow, things you learn from this forum. And innocent question can sure turn into something very enlightening!
Thanks for sharing that, Scubasteve!

Aww, thanks Big Guy! :redface: Well, that's why we're all here right? I love finding good, solid answers to questions, so I want to give good, solid answers when I can :mrgreen:. KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!:razz: