Just a Question about Processing.

[LilyD]

My sister visited a turkey farm that also does chickens for meat and was told that you have to put the meat in the fridge for a day before freezing because otherwise bacteria will grow on the meat in the freezer and you risk spoilage because of this. I have heard that if you rest in the fridge first it stops rigor is this maybe what she's thinking of or can it be something different? Never have fridged my chickens first always did freezer and then put them in the fridge once they are out of the freezer until they unstiffen. Should I worry?

 

[Buster52]

I would disagree with your turkey farmer. You don't want to leave meat in a freezer too long, because freezing only slows bacterial growth and decay and doesn't stop it entirely, but aging in the fridge has nothing to do with it.

But you really should age before freezing, not after.

 

[booker81]

Disagree - the only reason I do a slow cooldown is to prevent "cold shortening". Cold shortening makes for a tougher meat, regardless of how long you age it in the fridge after freezing. You don't want to stop the rigor, you want it to process through it's natural course and allow the muscles time to tense and then relax ideally before freezing them in place.

Most foodborne bacteria like to grow at warm temps, the only common one that really grows at fridge temp is Listeria, and that's generally found in foods that are not handled from soil and processed in less than perfect conditions (when I worked in the lab, we would get hits on stuff like deli meats, fruit and vegetables.

Bacteria that like to grow on fresh meat is usually due to fecal contamination during processing - Salmonella and E. coli. They can very slowly grow in the fridge, but don't care for it as much as Listeria does. Good processing guidelines cut the contamination way down.