Eating frozen food?

anb3600
anb3600 Posts: 46 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I left my cooked pasta out to defrost but it hasn’t fully defrosted yet. Would it still be safe to eat it slightly frozen? I don’t mind it cold I just don’t know if it will upset my stomach later but it’s all that I have on me to eat

Replies

  • lx1x
    lx1x Posts: 38,330 Member
    It's cooked so it's fine if ya eat it cold or even slightly frozen..
  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
    apullum wrote: »
    scarlett_k wrote: »
    It'll be fine although I'm more wondering why anyone would freeze cooked pasta. Yuck!

    Frozen pasta isn’t common where you live? Here, it’s easy to find frozen lasagna, mac and cheese, spaghetti, and other pasta.

    Nope not common practise here. You can freeze leftover lasagne I guess, just weird to freeze something that takes minutes to cook and the freezing ruins the texture.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    anb3600 wrote: »
    I left my cooked pasta out to defrost but it hasn’t fully defrosted yet. Would it still be safe to eat it slightly frozen? I don’t mind it cold I just don’t know if it will upset my stomach later but it’s all that I have on me to eat

    Sure it's safe. I personally wouldn't consider it palatable though. YMMV.

    I assume you don't have access to a microwave? Is it plain pasta? Dunking it in hot water would defrost it. This is how my OH defrosts frozen blueberries. (Not a method I recommend as it turns the water blue and he discards the water, which I think is wasteful. But wouldn't be an issue for plain pasta.)
  • saraonly9913
    saraonly9913 Posts: 469 Member
    Why not use the defrost option or a low option on the microwave?
  • mirrim52
    mirrim52 Posts: 763 Member
    scarlett_k wrote: »
    Nope not common practise here. You can freeze leftover lasagne I guess, just weird to freeze something that takes minutes to cook and the freezing ruins the texture.

    I'm going to assume because most people can't cook pasta at work.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    I would hesitate even to say it's safe, given that room temperature defrosting is generally frowned upon by food-safety experts, because the food spends too long in the temperature "danger" zone while getting to room temperature.
    mbaker566 wrote: »
    scarlett_k wrote: »
    It'll be fine although I'm more wondering why anyone would freeze cooked pasta. Yuck!

    because when you food prep, you freeze the food?

    Seems kind of like freezing toast. In either case, the time and effort to get the frozen product heated back up to its most palatable presentation after having been frozen could easily be more than the time and effort to start from scratch and just make freshly cooked pasta or freshly toasted bread.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    edited November 2019
    I have never found frozen meals including pasta to be a problem, and my office doesn't have a stove where I can just boil up a pot of pasta,so there's that.

    Making big casserole dishes full of baked ziti or lasagna and freezing them to be reheated later (often as a housewarming or sympathy gift) has been a thing in my family (Italian American side) since before I was born.

    I honestly would never eat frozen food defrosted but cold, I would think thoroughly reheating it would be required for food safety, not to mention there are stages of defrosting where the moisture content is going to be weird.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    I have never found frozen meals including pasta to be a problem, and my office doesn't have a stove where I can just boil up a pot of pasta,so there's that.

    Making big casserole dishes full of baked ziti or lasagna and freezing them to be reheated later (often as a housewarming or sympathy gift) has been a thing in my family (Italian American side) since before I was born.

    I honestly would never eat frozen food defrosted but cold, I would think thoroughly reheating it would be required for food safety, not to mention there are stages of defrosting where the moisture content is going to be weird.

    Sorry, I guess part of this is just a language-barrier issue. I wouldn't refer to frozen lasagna or frozen baked ziti as "frozen pasta," which to my mind kept conjuring up plain frozen pasta.

    And I also wasn't thinking of this as lunch-in-the-office issue, but a dinner-at-home issue, which just reflects my own narrow view based on personal experience (no longer work in an office and when I did, bringing food that was in the freezer in the morning if I didn't have a microwave just wouldn't have been something I would have done. I would have defrosted it at home the evening before if that was what I wanted and I was OK with eating it cold -- cold lasagna from the refrigerator is pretty tasty, IMO.)
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    I would hesitate even to say it's safe, given that room temperature defrosting is generally frowned upon by food-safety experts, because the food spends too long in the temperature "danger" zone while getting to room temperature.
    mbaker566 wrote: »
    scarlett_k wrote: »
    It'll be fine although I'm more wondering why anyone would freeze cooked pasta. Yuck!

    because when you food prep, you freeze the food?

    Seems kind of like freezing toast. In either case, the time and effort to get the frozen product heated back up to its most palatable presentation after having been frozen could easily be more than the time and effort to start from scratch and just make freshly cooked pasta or freshly toasted bread.

    i do not have a stove top at work.
    my pasta tastes just fine reheated
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    edited November 2019
    I’m pretty sure the OP is aware that half frozen pasta is not an optimal presentation. It sounds nasty, but will probably not kill you. In fact it’s more likely to be safe since it’s still at refrigerated temperature than fully thawed pasta which was allowed to room temperature thaw, which is definitely not safe handling.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    I’m pretty sure the OP is aware that half frozen pasta is not an optimal presentation. It sounds nasty, but will probably not kill you. In fact it’s more likely to be safe since it’s still at refrigerated temperature than fully thawed pasta which was allowed to room temperature thaw, which is definitely not safe handling.

    OP said that the past was "left out" which I take to mean left outside the refrigerator or freezer. This is not recommended by food-safety experts, as the exterior will spend too long in the temperature "danger-zone" while the interior thaws.
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    edited November 2019
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    I’m pretty sure the OP is aware that half frozen pasta is not an optimal presentation. It sounds nasty, but will probably not kill you. In fact it’s more likely to be safe since it’s still at refrigerated temperature than fully thawed pasta which was allowed to room temperature thaw, which is definitely not safe handling.

    OP said that the past was "left out" which I take to mean left outside the refrigerator or freezer. This is not recommended by food-safety experts, as the exterior will spend too long in the temperature "danger-zone" while the interior thaws.
    Yep, that’s exactly what I was saying, it’s not safe to thaw it that way.

    However, since she didn’t leave it out long enough to thaw, it never reached the danger zone and is still frozen, therefore probably safe.

    Ironically the mistake is safer than what she intended to do.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    I’m pretty sure the OP is aware that half frozen pasta is not an optimal presentation. It sounds nasty, but will probably not kill you. In fact it’s more likely to be safe since it’s still at refrigerated temperature than fully thawed pasta which was allowed to room temperature thaw, which is definitely not safe handling.

    OP said that the past was "left out" which I take to mean left outside the refrigerator or freezer. This is not recommended by food-safety experts, as the exterior will spend too long in the temperature "danger-zone" while the interior thaws.
    Yep, that’s exactly what I was saying, it’s not safe to thaw it that way.

    However, since she didn’t leave it out long enough to thaw, it never reached the danger zone and is still frozen, therefore probably safe.

    Ironically the mistake is safer than what she intended to do.

    "hasn't fully defrosted" doesn't mean that parts of the dish haven't reached the danger zone.

  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    rheddmobile wrote: »
    I’m pretty sure the OP is aware that half frozen pasta is not an optimal presentation. It sounds nasty, but will probably not kill you. In fact it’s more likely to be safe since it’s still at refrigerated temperature than fully thawed pasta which was allowed to room temperature thaw, which is definitely not safe handling.

    OP said that the past was "left out" which I take to mean left outside the refrigerator or freezer. This is not recommended by food-safety experts, as the exterior will spend too long in the temperature "danger-zone" while the interior thaws.
    Yep, that’s exactly what I was saying, it’s not safe to thaw it that way.

    However, since she didn’t leave it out long enough to thaw, it never reached the danger zone and is still frozen, therefore probably safe.

    Ironically the mistake is safer than what she intended to do.

    "hasn't fully defrosted" doesn't mean that parts of the dish haven't reached the danger zone.

    I suppose that’s possible - however, I would expect something touching ice to be pretty cold.

    Regardless, OP, this is not the best way to handle food prep in the future. If you can’t fully reheat something or thaw it gradually in the fridge, don’t freeze it.

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