If you buy fish from you local fishmonger, you definitely need to re-wrap it. The safest way to thaw fish is to do it slowly in the fridge overnight. Make sure to change the water every half hour so it stays cold.
You can also thaw fish in the microwave if absolutely necessary. Use the defrost setting and turn off the microwave when the fish is soft but still icy. There will always be some loss of moisture when ice crystals form and melt, leaving the seafood a little less succulent each time and damaging the texture of the protein itself. The less efficient the freezing process — in other words, the longer it takes for seafood to freeze — the more the product will suffer as a result. Even good purveyors of high-quality seafood typically thaw and refreeze fish at least once before it reaches you.
Try to refreeze your fish as soon as possible, since each day that passes can diminish the freshness of any fish. If the fish is cooked, allow the fish to cool to room temperature or even cool it in the refrigerator before moving it to the freezer. For fillets, wrap them up in plastic or vacuum-sealed packaging, if you have a Foodsaver and store them in a freezer bag in a single layer until they have completely frozen through.
You basically want there to be plenty of space surrounding the fish for cold air to circulate. Most customers know what cold top the touch means and furthermore, most customers innately know that a frozen product which has unintentionally defrosted without coming up to room temperature is in fact safe to refreeze. They know it is not a writeoff.
Notwithstanding the widespread advice that you should never refreeze a defrosted product, their common sense tells them that.
I know this because in 20 years of running The Fish Society, I have had perhaps conversations on this subject with all sorts of customers. If the fish was at 5C for ten hours and awash in watery runoff by the time it was refrozen, then the diminution would be clear to most people.
If it was only partially defrosted and there was no water runoff, then most people would find it difficult to taste the difference in a blind taste test. You could easily test this yourself. How long does it take for beef to thaw? Is it safe to use cans that freeze accidentally? Trending Articles How long is meat or poultry safe to use after the sell-by date? How long can you store eggs in the refrigerator? How long can meat and poultry remain in the refrigerator, once thawed?
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