Defrost and use within 24hrs...... but why?

[Goochie]

I bought some salmon fillets recently that had 4 days remaining before the "use by" date. I was planning on freezing them anyway but noticed the instructions say "defrost and use within 24hrs".

Given they had over 72hrs remaining before they went into the freezer, why must I now use them within 24hrs?

I'm fairly sure my freezer doesnt introduce bacteria into the food that wasnt there in the first place

[Engineer1]

Are you being stupid? The defrost and use within 24hours is to prevent you freezing it then defrosting and leaving in the fridge for a week then complaining when you get ill.

[Goochie]

Engineer1 said:

Are you being stupid? The defrost and use within 24hours is to prevent you freezing it then defrosting and leaving in the fridge for a week then complaining when you get ill.

Not being stupid at all. Consider this exagerated example:

You buy something on the 1st that says "Use by the 10th"

You place it in the freezer on the 1st.

By the 2nd it has fully frozen.

On the 5th you remove it from the freezer.

By the 6th it has defrosted.

Why should it now be used within 24hrs? Surely I can still keep it until the 10th? Or maybe even the 11th or 12th because (for the food) time stopped whilst it was frozen.

[Technonotice]

You are being stupid.

The date has nothing to do with it. You might have kept something in the freezer for months. The same rule applies

Once you have frozen and then de-frosted something you should use it within 24 hours. Or you 'might get ill'

HTH


YES MATE MY CHICKEN WAS FROZEN IN TIME!

ETA the 'might get ill' statement covers the manufacturers back in case you defrost some chicken leave it for to long then get ill.

Edited by Technonotice on Wednesday 9th September 14:34

[toppstuff]

If it smells fine and looks fine then cook it properly and eat it. Thats always been my maxim and Im still here..

The amount of food waste based on spurious "use by dates" is a scandal. You even seen use by dates on salt these days...

[Don]

There are special bacteria that thrive in defrosting food. The cold kills off all the non-special ones so these extra special bacteria get a free hand to divide and grow into the kind of utter deadliness that will kill you stone dead should you leave the defrosted food so much as a moment over the 24 hour deadline.

Real special bacteria with added deadliness, yeah.

[grumbledoak]

The instructions are back-covering gibberish.

You can freeze most fresh foods for three months, sometimes (much) more. At this point the 'eat by' date is long past. Unless you are more anal than some anal thing's arse you will not have kept track of how many 'fresh' days it has 'left'. So they advise you to act as though it is one.

Use your nose.

[Alex]

Don said:

There are special bacteria that thrive in defrosting food. The cold kills off all the non-special ones so these extra special bacteria get a free hand to divide and grow into the kind of utter deadliness that will kill you stone dead should you leave the defrosted food so much as a moment over the 24 hour deadline.

Real special bacteria with added deadliness, yeah.

Don't you mean with added dead-line-iness?

[Deva Link]

Goochie said:

Engineer1 said:

Are you being stupid? The defrost and use within 24hours is to prevent you freezing it then defrosting and leaving in the fridge for a week then complaining when you get ill.

Not being stupid at all. Consider this exagerated example:

You buy something on the 1st that says "Use by the 10th"

You place it in the freezer on the 1st.

By the 2nd it has fully frozen.

On the 5th you remove it from the freezer.

By the 6th it has defrosted.

Why should it now be used within 24hrs? Surely I can still keep it until the 10th? Or maybe even the 11th or 12th because (for the food) time stopped whilst it was frozen.

Yes, but if you were going to use it in that time-frame, then why freeze it?

The instructions are written with the assumption that you'll leave the food in the freezer for a while. If the fully documented every possibility then people would complain that the instructions were too complicated.