Refreeze thawed food or leave in fridge?

[Ashaman42]

Apparently doing the food shop for Christmas day whilst rather tipsy is a bad idea - it seems I just bunged everything in the fridge when we got home when some items were meant to be kept frozen. Namely some duck spring rolls, pigs in blankets and little mini cheese pizzas from the freezer section of Tesco. I'm not going to get a chance to shop again this weekend so I'm a bit stuck.

Now I'm torn whether to refreeze them - the packet does say not to but they were defrosted safely so the only issue would be texture rather than safety I think. Or keep them in the fridge till Christmas day.

I'm probably worrying overmuch but this will be Christmas dinner for my Mum who had a heart attack last Monday so I really don't want to make her poorly.

[rafletcher]

I’m a bit of a cynic about these sort of instructions. I regularly re-freeze stuff that I’ve defrosted and then for whatever reason not used, including chicken and pork. As long as you heat them up ( IIRC it needs a minimum about 80c for 10 minutes to kill any bugs - one of the resident biochemists may well correct me) and you’ll probably go hotter and longer than that.

[hellymedic]

If it's food you are likely to eat in the next few days, it will go 'off' more slowly at the lowest temperatures.
Refreeze, relax, cook well!

[SteveC]

MrsC and I did a food hygiene course back in the summer. The current advice appears to be that refreezing doesn't cause a safety risk. It may affect quality and you do have to remember that you've used up some 'fresh' time (so if it's use within three days and it was in the fridge for two you must use it the day you take it out of the freezer, you don't get another three days) but otherwise no problems.

[Paul H]

Third option would be to cook it and keep it, this is what I've always done, though TBH I'm not sure why.
I sometimes get cheap fish on a Sat with instructions not to freeze it, what I don't eat I make fish cakes with and freeze them without problem.

[SteveC]

Cooking resets the clock on how long you can keep it as you will have killed all the bugs, so cooking then freezing is fine.

[rafletcher]

Third option would be to cook it and keep it, this is what I've always done, though TBH I'm not sure why.
I sometimes get cheap fish on a Sat with instructions not to freeze it, what I don't eat I make fish cakes with and freeze them without problem.

In that case the not refreezing will be because it’s already been frozen (at sea at point of catch) and then thawed for sale.  Offshore freezing will be very fast blast freezing that doesn’t affect texture too much. Refreezing (the uncooked Fish) at home will be slower and will cause a small deterioration in texture but that’s it. But your method is equally good, and poss my better in terms of texture.