Refreezing after power outage

Hi, I'm new here. Along with wildfire, we lost power for 5 days. Several quarts of homemade chicken broth and tomato puree thawed but ere kept on ice. Is it OK to refreeze with no ill-effects? Or, can I make cooked pasta sauce or soup (with the broth) and then freeze? I've always been told to never re-freeze stuff but I don't want to waste it. also, I made several apple crisps that were vacuum sealed and frozen uncooked. They also thawed. Can I refreeze those. Thanks so much.

As I understand this issue is that freezing does not eliminate decomposition, but it slows it. As in frozen means this process is almost or totally inactive.

But when things thaw, the process picks up from where it was, because microbial life becomes active again.

From what we buy in the supermarket we know almost nothing. Did it unfreeze during transport, unloading, temporary storage? If so for how long? We just don't know.

Now come back to your own storage. You know if it thawed, if so for how long... Maybe you know how warm it got? If you managed to keep it on ice, it did not allow for much microbial activities... I think all this helps to make a determination if you can safely refreeze it or if it's better to consume it as soon as possible.

I hope this helps.

Deeanne Edwards wrote:Hi, I'm new here. Along with wildfire, we lost power for 5 days. Several quarts of homemade chicken broth and tomato puree thawed but ere kept on ice. Is it OK to refreeze with no ill-effects? Or, can I make cooked pasta sauce or soup (with the broth) and then freeze? I've always been told to never re-freeze stuff but I don't want to waste it. also, I made several apple crisps that were vacuum sealed and frozen uncooked. They also thawed. Can I refreeze those. Thanks so much.

Sorry to hear about the fires, power outages and food spoilage.

As Rene noted, freezing only slows the decomposition process.

Once it's thawed, it needs to be either used or thrown out.

This is particularly important with meat or meat-based products i.e. the chicken broth. That is a breeding ground for salmonella, etc. That's why they use a similar thing to grow cultures in labs (Luria Broth).

Seems like you'll have one heck of a banquet to use up all that food - maybe a good opportunity for a neighbourly 'block party'!

You can cook it and then freeze the cooked food.

repurpose and cook (make soup, make tomato sauce) and freeze again sounds like the best way.
Those apple crisps, though, sounds like time to invite people over and enjoy them. We had a blackout a few years ago and had to have a BBQ to use everything in the freezer.

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking, since I'll be boiling the broth and tomatoes in making the soup or sauce, it would kill anything that may have grown in the two days since thawing.