Transcript
SAFE FOOD FAQs How long are frozen foods good? http://hillsborough.ifas.ufl.edu/nutrition/food_safety.shtml
Answer Text: You might be surprised, but frozen food will be safe as long as it stays frozen. No bacteria that make us sick will grow at freezer temperatures. However, the quality of the food will usually deteriorate. So even though it's been in the freezer for 5 years, if the freezer has been on for the whole time, that old pork roast will still be safe! Keeping the freezer at 0° F or lower will keep much better quality. The changes that occur in 1 year at 0° F will happen in 3 weeks if the freezer is only 20° F. The more often the door of the freezer is opened the more freezer burn there will be. How fast the quality of the food goes down depends on the type of freezer too. Self‐defrosting freezers tend to create more frost‐burn or freezer‐burn then deep freezers. So food stored in the freezer of a refrigerator can be expected to keep its good quality for only several months. For long term storage use a deep freeze. There is less temperature variation, and the food will keep its quality longer. Using proper freezer wraps or containers also helps to slow freezer burn. They should seal tightly, be moisture‐resistant, and not crack at freezer temperatures. Some foods just don't keep very well frozen. They'll be safe, just poor quality. Ham and bacon tend to develop off‐flavors due to the interaction of the salt and fat at freezer temperatures. Short term they'll be okay, but the longer they're frozen the worse they'll taste. Cheese usually gets crumbly. It will be okay to sprinkle over casseroles, but you won't be able to slice it for sandwiches. Boiled and cooked egg whites get rubbery. Some herbs and spices lose their flavor, or change flavors. Other things just are not worth freezing at all because their quality will be so poor. Vegetables with lots of water such as cabbage and cucumbers will be watery and limp. Cream, mayonnaise and custards usually separate and get watery and lumpy. So whether you want to use a 5 year old pork roast depends on the quality, not the safety. Check out our FAQs on Food Safety videos. Look at the list of topics, choose what’s on your mind, and get the facts in 2 minutes or less. They're on our website, easy to access day or night, whenever you have a food safety question!
http://hillsborough.ifas.ufl.edu Search under Safe Food. Produced by Mary Keith, PhD, LD Extension Agent IV, Foods, Nutrition and Health Billie Lofland, MS Senior Video Producer UF/IFAS Hillsborough County Extension, 5339 CR 579, Seffner, FL 33584 813‐744‐5519
