Yesterday, after a long day of being in class for about seven consecutive hours, my roommate and I were preparing to have dinner and she was getting ready to cook meat for tamales. Tamales are a traditional food for most Hispanics. I say most Hispanics, because I'm Mexican and my roommate is Guatemalan and we both love to eat tamales. I was clearly not exposed to all this diversity in South Texas. Anyway, her meat had been in the freezer for a quite some time and she asked me if she should be worried about it acquiring bacteria. I get so excited when information that I learn in class comes up during the day.
I remembered how in one of our labs we had a question about freezing and thawing meat. One of the questions on the report asked, "Why does repeated freezing and thawing increase bacterial growth?" When meat is repeatedly thawed, the meat sits at room temperature for a while and this allows bacteria to grow. Freezing the meat after it has thawed does not kill or eliminate any of the new bacteria that could have possibly grown. It is always important to properly store meat in the freezer to avoid bacteria from growing on it. In the end, my roommate decided not to use the meat and threw it out. She saved herself from ingesting some possible bacteria, I guess I'm her hero now :P
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