Maytag Upright Freezers Freezing guidelines, cont, Food or Food Type, MEAT, POULTRY and SEAFOOD

Freezing guidelines, cont.

The chart below is provided by the USDA and should be used as a guideline only. When in doubt about food safety, it is always bet- ter to throw questionable food out.

Food or Food Type	Still contains ice crystals and	Thawed.
	feels as cold as if refrigerated	Held above 40° F for over 2 hours
MEAT, POULTRY and SEAFOOD
Beef, veal, lamb, pork and ground meats	Refreeze	Discard
Poultry and ground poultry	Refreeze	Discard
Variety meats	Refreeze	Discard
(liver, kidney, heart, chitterlings)
Fish, shellfish, breaded seafood products	Refreeze, however, there will be	Discard
DAIRY	some texture and flavor loss.
Milk	Refreeze, may lose some texture.	Discard
Eggs (out of shell) and egg products	Refreeze	Discard
Ice cream, frozen yogurt	Discard	Discard
Cheese (soft and semi-soft)	Refreeze, may lose some texture.	Discard
Hard cheeses	Refreeze	Refreeze
Shredded cheeses	Refreeze	Discard
Casseroles containing milk, cream,	Refreeze	Discard
eggs, soft cheeses
Cheesecake	Refreeze	Discard
FRUITS and VEGETABLES
Juices—fruit	Refreeze	Refreeze, discard if mold, yeasty smell
Juices—vegetables	Refreeze	or sliminess develops
		Discard after held above
Home, commercially packaged or	Refreeze, will change in	40° F (4° C) for 6 hours
		Discard after held above
blanched	texture and flavor.	40° F (4° C) for 6 hours or if mold,
BREADS and PASTRIES		yeasty smell or sliminess develops
Breads, rolls, muffins,	Refreeze	Refreeze
cakes (without custard fillings)
Cakes, pies, pastries with custard or	Refreeze	Discard
cheese filling
Pie crusts, commercial and homemade	Refreeze, some quality loss	Refreeze, quality loss is considerable.
bread dough	may occur.
OTHER
Casseroles—pasta or rice based	Refreeze	Discard
Flour, cornmeal, nuts	Refreeze	Refreeze
Breakfast items–	Refreeze	Refreeze
waffles, pancakes, bagels
Frozen meal, entrée, specialty items	Refreeze	Discard
(pizza, sausage and biscuit,
meat pie, and convenience foods)

12