How is it that you can refreeze some foods that have been previously frozen and defrosted (by a supermarket) but you cannot refreeze defrosted items at home?

Question

Today I bought some food that I had planned to freeze for use on another day. On the back of the packet it detailed that it had previously been frozen but thawed under controlled conditions and that it was safe to refreeze. I had always thought you couldn’t refreeze once thawed. How can supermarkets do this differently to me at home?

If at all contextual, I live in the U.K. and it was a curry.

In: Other

Answer 1

There isn’t anything inherently bad about freezing, thawing and refreezing, as long as it is done carefully so that you do not contaminate the product by handling or air exposure that would increase the bacterial count while also making sure that the time and temperature is within permisible parameters (usually means product is never over 5°C for over an hour).

Freezing a product will, on the other hand, affect the physical characteristics, specially if thawing rapidly. For instance, cells will rupture and meat will be drier and tough, strawberries liquefy, ice cream will form crystals, just to name a few examples.