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I know there have been questions on refreezing meat, which apparently is not safe to do. My understanding from those posts was that it was referring to raw meat. My question is slightly different.

I made a casserole with pasta, cheese, cooked ground turkey, and some veggies a few weeks ago. I had the leftovers in the fridge for about a day or 2 and then froze the leftovers. First, was it okay to freeze it at that point?

Second, I put the casserole in the fridge to thaw yesterday, but ended up having something else to eat for dinner. Based on other plans, I won't be able to eat it for another 2 days. I am not sure if t will be safe in the fridge for that long. If won't be safe for that long, would it be safe to refreeze?

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  • possible duplicate of How dangerous is it to refreeze meat that has been thawed?
    – rumtscho ♦
    Oct 4, 2011 at 15:55
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    I voted to close because the previous questions are not about raw meat. The "danger zone" counter for meat restarts after the meat has been cooked, but it just gives you a slightly longer time. If you are serious about food safety, don't refreeze neither raw nor cooked food.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Oct 4, 2011 at 15:57

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In between freezings it is wisest to cook it. So if you take out raw meat, and then cook it, you can freeze it again. If you take out cooked stuff, you should get it piping hot throughout, cool it quickly, and then freeze it again. It may not have a super pleasant texture - if you don't ave an emotional attachment to it, you might want to just toss it.

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Freezing ... well, basically freezes the growth of bacteria inside your food. Thus, if you heat it up quick enough later, it will not have significantly more bacteria or mold (spores) and related poisons than in the moment it got to the save temperature (remember that this moment is not exacly at the point you put it in the freezer but later.) If you would eat it tomorrow though than you can as well freeze it today, as long as you make sure you don't keep it for days after defrosting again.

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