I know “use by” and “best by” dates aren’t set in stone- it’s okay to drink milk a day or 2 past the expiration date- but let’s pretend for a minute that they are set and definite.
Let’s say I buy a package of steaks on July 1 and the expiration date is July 15. I put them in the freezer as soon as I get home, and leave them there until August 1st. Is the expiration now August 15? Or do I need to use them as quickly as possible?
I’m not potentially going to expose myself to foodborne illnesses, it’s just a question that’s sat in the back of my mind for a while.
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No, of course not.
Foods spoil because of the action of tiny living organisms called “bacteria” along with yeasts and molds. Some of those bacteria are dangerous to humans directly while many others are relatively benign. What is dangerous is the byproducts of their living and reproducing; in other words, their “poop”. The waste products they produce are poisonous to humans, in many cases augmented by the bacteria having evolved to excrete such wastes as a way to prevent other kinds of bacteria competing with them.
So food poisoning is literally that, poisoned food, and frozen poison is still poison. Furthermore as the bacteria reproduce their population and speed of poison production will increase, and freezing will not kill them. Once the food thaws back out they will start back up where they left off.
You can think of freezing food as pausing or extending the expiration date rather than resetting it. That’s why it usually says “use or freeze by” with the date. But even though things won’t rot in a freezer, they will still lose quality over time, as ice crystals build up and moisture is removed. That’s freezer burn.
I don’t pay much attention to use by dates, but I would consider that freezing halts the clock. So if you freeze with one day on the clock, you still have that day when you thaw it out.
It depends on how the food spoils, rancidity or bacterially.
Freezing food can at best pause the spoiling process.
Rancidity is when the food spoils through a chemical process, like milk spoiling. Pasteurized milk has no bacteria in it, but the chemicals that make up the milk can still react, spoiling the milk. It’s perfectly safe to drink, but it tastes awful. Not all rancid food is safe to eat, milk is just one example.
Bacterially is when bacteria eats your food and poops in it. That poop is toxic, even if you kill the bacteria, the poop is still there. (I’m lumping mold in with this too)
In both cases, freezing the food slows the process, sometimes stops it, but it depends on the food. Also if the freezer ever warms up and the food thaws (losing power for example) the clock starts again, even if it cools.down again without you ever opening the freezer.
No. It pauses/extends it.
Nothing resets it. Cooking may kill the bacteria, but is does not kill the waste products the bacteria made which is what makes you sick.
It’s a pause button at best …. But people often forget that rule of thumb (if thawing the frozen product in the fridge like you should) is that you should minus half day for the freezing process and minus half day for the thawing process. This isn’t hard and fast but something to take into account if you freeze on day of or day before expiration date and then wonder why it’s not great / off when you thaw it.
You can think of it like pausing the expiration, so if it was 4 days off spoiling before freezing then it will be 4 days off spoiling once you unthaw it. Although this is a very simple way to view it and it is not always accurate.
Bacteria are completely stopped at freezing, however some enzymes in the food continue to slowly spoil the food over time while freezing, so it is best to freeze food when it is already very fresh, rather than food that is near spoiling, and it might even be dangerous to freeze food close to its expiration date and letting it sit for a long time
More like hitting the pause/slow-mo button. cooling flesh slows down the rate of microbes growing.
IF you think of a steak as a movie, you are entering halfway through the movie. (the cow was born raised and slaughtered before you could even buy it) you cannot rewind only go forward. when the ‘movie’ ends, the steak is either in your stomach or in the trash. It is all about the growth of microbes that rot steaks of any animal.
say You bought a steak today. If you leave it on the counter to come up to room temp It needs to be cooked asap. ie the ‘Steak Movie’ is on “*fast* forward.”
If you refrigerate it, you slow down the microbes growth, ie “play” in a steady controlled environment. You can safely leave it covered in the fridge for a couple days.
If you freeze it you are almost pressing “pause”. instead of 2 days, you can safetly freeze it for 2? months. Below freezing you stop the growth of microbes. the reason the clock is still ticking is from freezer burn. (I am unsure of how to explain this.)
The clock is simply ALWAYS ticking with steaks.
Hope this helps!
It’s all subjective. It’s ultimately the amount of time it spends in the ‘Danger Zone’, 40 F-140F (4C-60C). Your fridge is cold, but it’s not *that* cold, so it’s not doing a tremendous job inhibiting bacterial growth, nor is your freezer cold enough to really sterilize something. If your steak was fresh, and well sealed, and went into the freezer immediately, then it’s going to have a lot longer shelf life, and you’d get something closer to your Aug 15th date.
If it sat around for a few days, say July 7th; before you decide to freeze it, when it comes back out of the freezer it’s still going to have all that bacteria in it, so you’d want to use it as soon as possible, even if you have ‘8’ days left.
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