What happens if you refreeze fish

New Farmers. Disaster Resource Center. An official website of the United States government. Have a Question? Is it safe to refreeze food that has thawed? Information Knowledge Article. If raw or cooked food is thawed in the refrigerator, it is safe to refreeze it without cooking or heating, although there may be a loss of quality due to the moisture lost through thawing.

Answer : If the fish has been properly defrosted in the refrigerator, or in cold water that was changed every 30 minutes, then it can be safely refrozen within a strict two day timeframe. Fish can be refrozen once it has thawed, provided that safety guidelines were followed for both the original freezing and defrosting.

Proper methods of defrosting include on a refrigerator shelf or in a bowl of cold water that is changed every 30 minutes while defrosting. According to the USFDA, these are the only two safe thawing methods that would allow for fish to then be refrozen after thawing. Due to this short shelf life, the fish must be refrozen after only a day or two of having been thawed.

Left unthawed any longer, and the fish will begin to spoil. Never place spoiled or spoiling foods back into a freezer — see the additional information section below for more information on this. Much of the fish that is purchased in the fish market section of a grocery store has actually been previously frozen in order to preserve freshness while in transit to the store. In many parts of the country, it is even recommended to purchase fish in the frozen state rather than fresh in order to get a fresher product.

The question is whether this impact is negligible or noticeable to you. There will always be some loss of moisture when ice crystals form and melt, leaving the seafood a little less succulent each time and damaging the texture of the protein itself.

The less efficient the freezing process — in other words, the longer it takes for seafood to freeze — the more the product will suffer as a result. Even good purveyors of high-quality seafood typically thaw and refreeze fish at least once before it reaches you. Try to refreeze your fish as soon as possible, since each day that passes can diminish the freshness of any fish.

If the fish is cooked, allow the fish to cool to room temperature or even cool it in the refrigerator before moving it to the freezer. For fillets, wrap them up in plastic or vacuum-sealed packaging, if you have a Foodsaver and store them in a freezer bag in a single layer until they have completely frozen through.

You should never do that. And you should not refreeze raw meat or fish if you defrosted it by microwaving it or running cold water over it, she said. You should not put it back in the fridge or refreeze it. The U.