How long does frozen fresh meat & fish last?

[riker1384]

I have some various meat and fish in my freezer. (By "fresh" I just meant uncooked, some of it may have been frozen before I bought it.) I have some chicken and salmon that is two years old. Is that too old? How long does this stuff last? Forgive me if this has been asked before.

 

[CaroleC]

Throw it out! Fish is okay for up to 3 months and poultry generally around 6 months. Red meat lasts longer but I wouldn't be keeping ANY meat for longer than twelve months. There is usually a sticker on the inside of your freezer door outlining how long you can keep various things but it depends on a number of things such as how fresh the meat was when it was frozen and how good your freezer is but seriously, throw that stuff out!

 

[VeraBlue]

Oh my! Toss it, and then burn the pail! Seriously, nothing is safe in the freezer for longer than 12 weeks. Regardless what it is, ice crystals form, breaking down the flesh, altering it's taste and condition. Freezing does not 100% prevent spoilage. It slows it down, but it doesn't completely prevent it.

I don't know what your schedule is like, nor do I know how often you shop. Consider just buying what you are going to need for the week, just enough for 4 -5 meals...and just refrigerate it. Most meat and poultry will not spoil in 4-5 days under proper refrigeration. Plus, you won't have the hassle of proper defrosting, either.

I've always shopped once a week, but when I was younger, I simply threw all the meat and chicken and fish into the freezer, unless I was planning on cooking it that night or the next day. That kind of practice leads to wasting money and food, not to mention discovering unidentifiable items in self-made igloos...

 

[Aria]

YES...please follow Vera Blue's advise.

 

[Unclechili]

I agree that the meat should be thrown out. That's far to long to be in the freezer. However, I agree with Carole's timeframes for freezing, just make sure that it's packaged in a quality freezer bag (maybe even two). When you thaw it, do it slowly, either in the fridge overnight or in cold water keeping it in its packaging.

 

[CharlieD]

What are you people talking about?

Do not throw away anything, everything, as long as it has been frozen all the time, no refreezing I mean, is fine. Fish might taste funny because it kind starts tasting like the freezer after while. Well, so can chicken actually. But it is not bad for sure. I just recently made brisket from the meat i bought and left in the freezer 4 years ago. Tasted great. As the matter of fact i have another one and half a dozen chickens from 2 years ago. Everything is fine. The only thing my stuff was in air tight plastick wrap, so it did not tasted like freezer. If stuff is frozen proparly you can keep it for years. It will taste old, kind of old, but it should not have spoiled.

I keep telling this story to pepple many times, when I was in the army we were given meat that was like 20 years old. There was stamps when it was frozen. The new meat goes into storage the old one comes out. So there is roughly speaking 20 year supply in case of prolonged war.

Please do not throw anything away and please do not listen to advise of a person who has never frozen anything for more than few weeks. How are they going to know what the food will taste like. Just watch for frezzer burns, you might have to cut it off.

 

[Constance]

I agree with Charlie. Things don't spoil in the freezer...they just get freezer burn if not wrapped properly. Keeping the moisture in and the air out is the secret. This is where aluminum foil and freezer weight ziploc bags are your friends.
I've cooked beef that's 4 years old, and it's been fine for soups or stews.
Chicken can get a funky taste, but we ate some the other night that was a year old, and it was delicious.
Fish can dry out very fast, so we try to eat it within a few months. Kim freezes his bass fillets in water though, and they keep quite well that way. He found a bag in the bottom of the freezer a while back that was 3 years old, and when he fried it up it was still great.
Vegetables that have been blanched, fruit that's been sugared and frozen in it's own juice, and tomato products packed in freezer bags will last a long time without any deterioration.

 

[VeraBlue]

What are you people talking about?

Do not throw away anything, everything, as long as it has been frozen all the time, no refreezing I mean, is fine. Fish might taste funny because it kind starts tasting like the freezer after while. Well, so can chicken actually. But it is not bad for sure. I just recently made brisket from the meat i bought and left in the freezer 4 years ago. Tasted great. As the matter of fact i have another one and half a dozen chickens from 2 years ago. Everything is fine. The only thing my stuff was in air tight plastick wrap, so it did not tasted like freezer. If stuff is frozen proparly you can keep it for years. It will taste old, kind of old, but it should not have spoiled.

I keep telling this story to pepple many times, when I was in the army we were given meat that was like 20 years old. There was stamps when it was frozen. The new meat goes into storage the old one comes out. So there is roughly speaking 20 year supply in case of prolonged war.

Please do not throw anything away and please do not listen to advise of a person who has never frozen anything for more than few weeks. How are they going to know what the food will taste like. Just watch for frezzer burns, you might have to cut it off.

For your information, Charlie...I'm certified in Food Safety Handling and Sanitation in both New York State and in New Jersey. I don't give incorrect information here. If someone asks a question that I am certified qualified to answer, I do, and I do it responsibly.

 

[VeraBlue]

I agree with Charlie. Things don't spoil in the freezer...they just get freezer burn if not wrapped properly. Keeping the moisture in and the air out is the secret. This is where aluminum foil and freezer weight ziploc bags are your friends.
I've cooked beef that's 4 years old, and it's been fine for soups or stews.
Chicken can get a funky taste, but we ate some the other night that was a year old, and it was delicious.
Fish can dry out very fast, so we try to eat it within a few months. Kim freezes his bass fillets in water though, and they keep quite well that way. He found a bag in the bottom of the freezer a while back that was 3 years old, and when he fried it up it was still great.
Vegetables that have been blanched, fruit that's been sugared and frozen in it's own juice, and tomato products packed in freezer bags will last a long time without any deterioration.

Food most certainly will and does spoil in the freezer. Toxins that have been produced by pathogens on the surface of food cannot be killed with freezing. The ciguatera toxin, a seafood toxin, cannot be smelled or tasted and is neither destroyed by freezing or cooking. Scromboid poisoning is one of the most common forms of illness caused by fish toxin in the US. This illness produces histamines, also not killed by freezing or cooking.

Mushroom toxins cannot be destroyed by freezing or cooking.

Meat or poultry that is stored in the supermarket package of styrofoam and plastic is not even remotely close to airtight, allowing microorganisms to penetrate the container and contaminate the food. If you rewrap the food, the possibility of cross contamination from hands, cutting boards, counter tops, even a stray hair can also introduce pathogens to the surface, producing toxins that are not killed by freezing. So, your meat that is sitting in the freezer for more than 3 months is festering, plain and simple. It may be doing it quietly, but it is doing it.

I've heard the tired old argument a thousand times..."we never got sick before"....Chances are you did and didn't take overnotice of the symptoms. Even if you didn't, is the price of a 4 year old piece of meat worth the risk?? Really??

Like I told Charlie, I'm proud of my certifications, which I have to renew by retesting every three years. I don't give information that I simply think works best for me, when it comes to food safety and sanitation. I give it, correctly and responsibly.

One more thing...moisture is a vehicle for contaminants, just as bad as the air.

 

[college_cook]

Food most certainly will and does spoil in the freezer. Toxins that have been produced by pathogens on the surface of food cannot be killed with freezing. The ciguatera toxin, a seafood toxin, cannot be smelled or tasted and is neither destroyed by freezing or cooking. Scromboid poisoning is one of the most common forms of illness caused by fish toxin in the US. This illness produces histamines, also not killed by freezing or cooking.

If properly cared for and frozen, chances are in your favor that you will not get sick from food that has been frozen for a long time. VeraBlue is right, however, food can spoil in the freezer. However, regarding the issue of toxins, you're right, they're killed neither by cooking or freezing, but if they're on the food, they're on the food, whether you cook it fresh or cook it after its been frozen. If you buy toxin-contaminated food, you're basically SOL no matter what, and you're in for a bad day.

Bottom line is, ANY food you eat is never 100% safe. There are minimal chances that there will be toxins, parasites, etc. in anything you eat, but the key is minimizing the risk. If you are careful about preserving your food, making sure it is clean, well-wrapped, before preserving then you have a much lesser chance of getting ill.

I strongly encourage you all to look into other methods of preservation other than freezing as well. Try doing a salt cure on fish, or smoke some pork to preserve them. You can also freeze in addition to curing or smoking, 2 methods of preservation on a single food item. Additionally, curing and smoking foods adds flavor, which can be lost when you simply freeze foods, or worse, your food will pick up the tastes of the various odors in your freezers.

 

[VeraBlue]

Agreed, college cook, nothing new will get in there...but, if it's already on the surface, it's had, in some cases, 4 years to continue to grow. It's also easire than some think to contaminate a piece of meat, fish or poultry.

 

[Jeekinz]

4 years? That's kinda wierd. Like...cryogenic food.....like, the thing has been dead for 4 years, and eaten in the future.


Wierd.

 

[Constance]

Vera, you have a right to be proud of your training and certification, and I am not slighting that in any way. But in your situation, you (the state) have to be prepared to cover your backside to prevent a lawsuit, which means that it is best to err on the side of safety.

Here are quotes from a USDA document on freezing food:

"Because freezing keeps food safe almost indefinitely, recommended storage times are for quality only. Refer to the freezer storage chart at the end of this document, which lists optimum freezing times for best quality."


"Freezing to 0 °F inactivates any microbes -- bacteria, yeasts and molds - - present in food. Once thawed, however, these microbes can again become active, multiplying under the right conditions to levels that can lead to foodborne illness. Since they will then grow at about the same rate as microorganisms on fresh food, you must handle thawed items as you would any perishable food."


Freezing and Food Safety

 

[buckytom]

i go with the 1 year rule in my freezer. if it's in there longer, it gets tossed - if it can be chipped out.

i just made a tomato sauce last night with tomatoes from last summer's garden. it came out pretty good, but in a critical view, you could tell the tomatoes weren't fresh.

i've made (and survived) salmon that was frozen for around 2 years, and chicken that was frozen a little longer. it didn't taste very good and the texture was way off, so it was more or less a waste of time.

i ended up tossing them both after eating just a little each time, essentially wasting all of the other ingredients that were used in the preparation.

 

[CaroleC]

Well either way, I wouldn't be eating it if it's been there that long. I'm sticking to just buying what I need.

 

[Katie H]

Ewwww! I can't imagine food in the freezer for year! Pew. Pew.

 

[buckytom]

loogeys aside, i have had cryo-vac packed fish that was frozen on the boat, and kept frozen until i had it almost a year later, and it was still very good. so not all frozen stuff is that bad, so long as you follow the aforementioned advice about wrapping and freezing.

 

[love2"Q"]

i wont cook anything that has been in there longer than 2 months ..
wrong or right .. thats my rule ...
but i buy 90 % of my meat fresh ..

 

[VeraBlue]

loogeys aside, i have had cryo-vac packed fish that was frozen on the boat, and kept frozen until i had it almost a year later, and it was still very good. so not all frozen stuff is that bad, so long as you follow the aforementioned advice about wrapping and freezing.

Your talking about sous vide, which translates to 'no air'.

 

[buckytom]

no, i meant raw fish being frozen and vacuumed packed, not sure in which order, right on the fishing vessel at sea. it is not intended to be cooked in the pouch, or is pre-cooked in any way, as either can define the term sous vide. (lol, thanks for making me have to look that up. )
it is just frozen fish, for thawing and cooking like any other frozen fish.

most a&p's in our area carry tuna and swordfish that is packaged this way.

does anyone use the trick of freezing cleaned fish in a block of ice made from seawater? old milk catrons are used to form the block. i've heard it's a good way to store your catch for an extended period.