Freezing minced meat the defrosting, cooking and refreezing

[AHVincent]

I make cottage pies and various home made meals over here in Thailand for a food delivery small business.

In order for this to work they need to be frozen.

Is it ok to do this:

- buy fresh minced chicken/pork raw
- freeze it
- unthaw the meat at a latter date
- bake/cook the food into meatloafs/cottage pies
- freeze the cooked food
- reheat the food for consumption at a latter date

They are these kinds of frozen meals.

Thank,
Bruno

[wendy]

I have always frozen food. After it was defrosted, then cooked.

[p.penn]

I have often done that too.

[mrs boodles]

Same here.

[AHVincent]

Thank you everybody for the unanimous answers, however...

Nobody confirmed yes exactly if this is possible:

A. Buy fresh minced meat
B. Freeze minced meat
C. Unthaw and cook a meal with the meat (cottage pie, meatloaf ect..)
D. Freeze the ready cooked meal
E. Unfreeze and cook the meal and eat it

Thanks,
Bruno

[Totally Scrambled]

The simple answer is yes.
The basic rule is do not re-freeze, so freeze food, defrost but do not re-freeze in it's raw state.
You can eat it after it is defrosted or you can cook it and only then can you freeze it.
Dom

[Mo]

The other thing is -
1) if you freeze raw meat any germs already in the meat it will not be killed by freezing, but at low temperature they will not multiply
2) when you defrost they can start to multiply at warmer temperatures
3) cooking will kill the germs if the temperature is high enough all through (so you don't want a bit that is still frozen in the middle, that might not get hot enough)
4) as you cool it if any germs that survive, or if the food picks up some from the surroundings or dirty hands or tools, then the temperatures are right for fast multiplication
5) freezing the cooked food inactivates these germs but doesn't kill them.

So it all depends on the hygiene of your food handling (and your customers). Cool the cooked food quickly and freeze as soon as it is cool.
Never mix raw meat with cooked food and wash hands after handling raw meat. It is better to have separate tools and preparation areas for raw and cooked, and be careful when storing raw food that it doesn't contaminate food that is already cooked or will be eaten raw.

[bmpsands]

I buy most of my meat about once every 2 months and freeze it down. Mince is frozen in kilo lumps. Individual lumps are defrosted and made into meals, half of which then go back into the freezer. Basic batch cooking. I've been doing this for 40 years and have had no problems.

I do take the point about food hygiene and handling. That's really important.