See below our tips on freezing, defrosting, storing and labelling food. It is super important to follow safe practices when defrosting our meat.
Packaging and storage
Always ensure that your freezer is operating below the maximum legal temperature of -18°c.
- Always check the temperature of your frozen goods when they are delivered. If you are delivered frozen goods that exceed -15°c you may refuse the items and ask for a refund.
- Frozen produce must be secured with lids to avoid cross contamination.
- Raw meat products stored at the bottom.
- High risk ready-to-eat items stored at the top.
- Do not use cardboard as storage, as it can absorb water and therefore hold on to bacteria.
- You should remove frozen goods from delivery packaging to avoid transferring bacteria.
- For the quickest results for freezing and defrosting, always pre-package your frozen items into smaller containers.
Labelling
The most important part of freezing is making sure you are labelling correctly. If the product you intend to freeze has a manufacturers use-by-date on it, remove it or clearly cross it out before relabelling.
- Never freeze expired food that has gone past its use-by date.
- Frozen food must be re-labelled the date it was frozen, and how much shelf life it has left from the point of freezing.
- Once frozen, the product should be used within 3 months.
- When defrosting, a new label with the date and time it was taken out of the freezer and its new expiry date according to its remaining shelf life must be applied to the product.
- Food that has been defrosted must be labelled as having previously been frozen, to avoid any instances of freezing it twice.
- You must never re-freeze an item after defrosting it.
Defrosting
Defrosting must always be done in the fridge.
- Do not try to speed up the process by defrosting at higher temperatures, as when food is defrosted in the Danger Zone (between 8°c - 63°c) bacteria can develop on it faster.
- Remember; your maximum fridge temperature is 8°c, with 5°c being the optimal temperature.
- Defrost items in a clean container that can catch any drips.
- Make sure that the product has been fully defrosted before cooking.
- If parts of the product are still frozen, they may not cook evenly and harmful bacteria may survive the cooking process
Click here for the thawing procedure for the Bidfood mince.