I froze chicken soup right after making it, then defrosted it. Is it safe to freeze it again?
You can safely refreeze frozen food that has thawed—raw or cooked, although there may be a loss of quality due to the moisture lost through thawing. To safely refreeze, the thawed product must have been kept cold at 40 degrees or below for no more than 3-4 days.
As a last-ditch effort, the third best option is to microwave your frozen container on the defrost setting, with a key stipulation. Ramsey says you have to cook it and consume it immediately. This method works best for something like soup, since the microwave heats most foods unevenly when cooking from frozen. Just crack the lid open a bit (but leave the lid on because you dont want microwave splatter) and occasionally stir to break up icy chunks.
The biggest downside of freezing and thawing and re-freezing and re-thawing is that the food becomes excessively mushy. Most food contains water. When you freeze something, the water inside expands, and the cell walls break down, leading to unrecognizable mush, says Ramsey. The only exception, he says, is flash-frozen products. If you purchase something frozen, it likely has gone through a deep, flash-freezing process, so the water hasnt had time to pool and turn your food into sad slop. If youre freezing something in your home freezer, it freezes very slowly (i.e., mush city). For this reason, soup is something you can get away with refreezing, but meat—not so much.
In that case, the covered container that holds your frozen food in a bowl under running room temperature tap water. Ramsey notes that water is a better conductor of heat than air is, so water will thaw the goods much quicker. Without the running water, your frozen food just acts as a giant ice cube that cools the water and slows down the whole process. No good.
According to senior food editor Rick Martinez and Robert Ramsey, chef instructor at the Institute of Culinary Education, you can refreeze and re-thaw food—but just because you can doesnt mean you should. At ICE, Ramsey and his colleagues have a blanket rule: “If somethings been frozen once, thats it.”
He also notes that freezing stops bacterial growth but it doesnt kill existing bacteria. When we thaw and heat, we introduce more bacteria. Thats completely fine—bacteria will always exist. But ICE advocates that, ideally, the amount of bacteria would remain below the threshold where the body can fight it off. And freezing and refreezing tests those limits.
I froze chicken soup right after making it, then defrosted it. Is it safe to freeze it again?
@henrybottjer asked: “What is the best way to store and freeze soup for later use?”
FAQ
Can you refreeze soup that was already frozen?
How many times can you freeze and thaw soup?
What happens if you freeze food twice?
Is it bad to refreeze broth?
Can You refreeze soup?
There are a few things to keep in mind when refreezing soup. The first is that you should make sure the soup is completely thawed before refreezing it. If there are still chunks of ice in the soup, it will not freeze properly and could spoil. The second thing to keep in mind is the size of the refreezing container.
Can one refreeze homemade chicken broth?
It is not indicated. After thawing once, the chances of contamination are greater, and therefore the best option is to freeze in small portions, such as ice cubes, and thaw only what is going to be used.
Can thawed soup be refreezed?
As long as the soup doesn’t sit at room temperature for a couple of hours or more, thawed soup is safe to refreeze. The safest way to refreeze soup is to reheat the soup thoroughly before cooking and refreezing. Let’s look at the best way to freeze and refreeze soup to make sure it’s safe and delicious when you’re ready to eat it.
Is refreezing vegetable soup safe?
Refreezing vegetable soup once is safe and it won’t cause any harm to your health. But, refreezing might significantly degrade the Soup’s taste, texture, and quality. Since the vegetable soup contains a lot of veggies, you’ll notice that they have started turning mushy and have lost a lot of flavors.