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SPECIAL FOCUS

generally provides better quality of food For this reason, frozen food manufacturers
than slow thawing. Because the should provide instructions or educate
temperature of frozen food is slightly lower consumers how to defrost safely or to cook
than the freezing point (subfreezing appropriately, for example, to thaw only
temperature), it causes some negative the amount of food required for
effects as belowed; cooking. Might as well give an
- Recrystallization creates larger ice advice or warning of what if the
crystal that can damage the structure, thawed food cannot use up for
membrane tissues, and texture of the the safety of the consumers and
food. reputation of your factory.
- Chemical reaction that flows at a very
high-speed causes undesirable effects on
color, odor, flavor and nutritional value of เอกสารอ้างอิง/Reference
http://library.uru.ac.th
foods, resulting in adaptation and growth
of some microorganisms, especially if it
takes long time to defrost.
Even so, if the frozen food operator
can handle an effective quality and
sanitary control during the production
process, it’s less potential to have severe
problems of the growth of the pathogenic
microorganism from regular thawing
process (following the instruction provided
by the factory to consumers). The key is
that the factory must control the amount
of microorganism in the food (load of
microorganism) abreast standards. During
defrosting, the food should not get direct
exposure by the thermal conductivity, such
like water serves as a coolant. This is often
the source of microorganism
contamination. On the other hand, packed
the frozen food with a film or skin-tight
packaging and soaking it in circulating
clean water is the quickest way to thaw
the frozen foods.

Is it Safe to Refreeze Thawed
Foods?
Putting a thawed piece of frozen food back
into the freezer or reprocess might lead
to a decrease in the food quality. That is
equal to freeze low quality food which is
contrary to the principle of good freezing
practice. There may also be defects in the
tissue structure and partially lose some
nutritional value before re-freeze.
Generally speaking, the freeze-thaw cycle
definitely triggers the reduced quality of
food, more or less depending on the type
of food, freezing techniques, as well as
storage (time and temperature), thawing
and cooking practices. But the most
important to be taken into consideration
is the microbiology safety that a
microorganism can grow during the first
and after thawing, plus a risk of an
increasing microorganism contamination.

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