Is there a difference in how to store something that was frozen that has been cooked versus how to store something that was fresh and has been cooked?

Question

There are many questions on here about how long you can store cooked food, and I have been using StillTasty for more specific answers following some of the comments.

However I notice that StillTasty has information listed for many foods for "Fresh, Cooked", "Fresh, Raw" and "Commercially Frozen". Is there a difference in storage of "Fresh, Cooked" food and food that was frozen and thawed before cooking? Or is this just an oddity of their descriptions?

Edit: Assuming the thawing and cooking has been done thoroughly to "safe temperatures".

Answer 1

If I'm understanding your question correctly, there is no difference in storage time. Regardless of whether the food was fresh or frozen & thawed, once cooked, storage time is the same.

Answer 2

It depends on your definition of "cooking":

• Frozen food

  • Thawing in the fridge and cooking a previously frozen Dinosaur T-Bone steak until rare, can be kept in the fridge and still be eaten one day later. ;-)
  • Cooking same steak until burnt to a crisp well done can be re-frozen safely. :-)
    
    

  In-between those two extremes lie the dangerous parts, so the general rule of thumb should be:

  • If you plan on refreezing thawed food, cook it through-and-trough and freeze ASAP, if possible in the fast-freeze section of your freezer.

• Fresh food:

  • Can be cooked any style and safely frozen as long as you don't leave it out of the freezer for too long at too high temperatures (Rule of thumb on freezing ASAP still applies)