Can You Eat Freezer-Burned Fishes? (Quick Facts)

There is nothing wrong with eating freezer-burned fish. It is because the freezer-burned phenomenon does not either affect the fish’s nutrition or damage it.

Along with meat and beef, fish is a kind of food consumed widely by humans worldwide. Besides, it is stated to contain enormous nutritions that benefit your health but at the same time, don’t make you fat.

Hence, people tend to store a large amount of this thing in their freezer for later use.

Related: The most popular types of meat you should know about

Is It Safe To Eat Freezer-Burned Fishes?

Before finding this out, it is better to understand what freezer burn is.

Generally speaking, freezer-burn is a phenomenon appearing when air contacts with food. Although it might lower the quality and taste of food, eating deep-freeze food is safe as long as it has not reached its expiry date.

The same case also applies to fishes, which means that consuming these unappealing and color-changing fish has no negative impact on your health.

To avoid the circumstance, you should know how to store them adequately. This allows you to maintain the taste, nutrition, and color from 6 months to a year. If you witness some suspicious changes in your food, timely discovering the root of the phenomenon would work.

Signs Of Freezer Burn In Fishes You Should Know

When fishes are in contact with air (usually called overexposure), they will become freezer-burned for a long time. Deep freeze leads to loss of water making them dry and tasteless.

There are significant indicators signals that yours has been over frosted, include:

  • Discoloration: You can realize this phenomenon if strange colors (different from their natural color) appear. They usually are gray or white spots.
  • Changes in flavor or texture: When you take them out of the freezer, prepare and taste them, you will know which parts are freezer-burned for sure.

Once experiencing this unfortunate condition, your cooked fish will become tasteless or smell like the food you stored nearby. What’s more, it also has dry and chewy signs that you can’t miss.

How To Cook Freezer-Burned Fishes?

As mentioned before, these ones would become tasteless because of changes in meat structure and nutrition. But, there are things you can do to “rescue” them rather than simply throwing them away. Below are several ways to do it:

  • Prepare fish chowder: The use of herbs or tomatoes will better and stimulate the taste and smell. Hence, this is one of the best choices you can refer to.
  • Make curry: Another outstanding choice would be fish curry. The spicy flavor of curry can successfully rescue the dish here.
  • Bake them: The simplest way is to add your favorite ingredients, especially those that can eliminate the smell effectively, to better your baked fish.

Learn more great tips here.

How to Prevent This From Happening?

There are several tips you can do to avoid freezer-burned fish appearing:

  • Wrap properly: Although you still can store packaging to wrap your fish, experts do not recommend it. It is because the packaging usually is not thick enough to seal it from the cold air. Instead, freezer paper or freezer bags would be optimal choices.
  • Let it cool: Hot fish is not appropriate for the freezing process because the rapid temperature change would damage it. Therefore, make sure it’s cooled down before storing it in the freezer.
  • Label the expiry date:  Doing this reminds you to consume yours at its most delicious time.
  • Glaze with water: Dipping the fish into the water and freezing it will create a layer that prevents air from contacting it. What’s more, it won’t witness significant temperature fluctuation that mainly causes freezer burn.
  • Keep the temperature at 0°F: At this point, the fish will be frozen at its fastest speed, limiting the formation of ice crystals on the fish’s surface.
  • Store wrapped ones at the back of the freezer: These areas witness less temperature fluctuation than the front parts.

Can You Eat Fish That Has Been Frozen For A Year?

Many may mislead that the food expiry date refers to the safe period of consuming food. Though, it is not the case. Food dating given by manufacturers is measured based on the ideal time to consume products without experiencing any loss of taste and nutrition.

Thus, according to the USDA, once food has been frozen and appropriately stored at or below 0 ° F, it can last highly long up to several years, much less a single year.

How Long Can You Keep Raw Fish In The Freezer?

Ideally, once stored in the freezer, raw fish can be there for up to 4 months without any changes in flavor, taste, smell, and color. However, four months is recommended for high quality only. If you still want to consume it after this point, don’t worry because it is still safe.

Refer to this link for ways to store raw fish.

How Long Will Vacuum Sealed Fish Last In The Freezer?

Being the best method here, vacuum-sealed fish stored in the freezer can be kept fresh for up to 2 years. No damage, no change in color will occur if you follow the below steps:

  • Step 1. Clean and prepare the fish first. Make sure it is dry after you wash it with water.
  • Step 2. Cut it into small fillets so that you can simply take some out to eat without affecting others. Besides, doing this can save space in your freezer.
  • Step 3. Pre-freeze it to keep it fresh longer
  • Step 4. Transfer it into freezer bags for your vacuum sealer
  • Step 5. Vacuum seals the packaging
  • Step 6. Label it to recall you about time and food you store
  • Step 7. Put vacuum-sealed parts into the freezer

Tamara Pierce

Tamara Pierce is a food writer at Elapasony, passionate about exploring diverse cuisines and sharing recipes and food experiences. From trendy restaurants to local hotspots, she's always on the lookout for new and exciting flavors.

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