Frozen Ground Beef????!
Frozen Ground Beef????
Today I was planning to make sloppy joes. So around noon I took out the meat to thaw. It was completely thawed around 4 pm but I wasnt ready to cook yet. So I put it in the refrigerator. Well, Its now 9 pm and I still havent cooked and I dont feel like it (I'm really sick) My problem is, I bought the meat last June 07 and it says on the label "best if used OR frozen by june 15 2007." Is it still safe to eat if I leave it in the refrigerator overnight??? And is it ok that its been frozen since june?? Will it be safe to cook tomorrow???
Answers:
The experation date doesn't matter since you froze it, assuming you froze it immedietly after you bought it.
The only place it might have picked up some bacteria is when you defrosted it out of the fridge for 4 hours. Its not really safe to defrost meat outside, but honestly, I do it all the time and have had no bad effects from it. And since you put it in the fridge when it was still partially frozen, it should be just fine. But to be sure, use it tomorrow for sure, and make sure it is cooked really good (no pink left at all) so that any bacteria will be killed by the heat.
Eat and Enjoy!