Skip to Content

Can You Refreeze Hamburger?

By: Author William Thomas

William Thomas

Editor-in-Chief & Pitmaster

I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.
Learn more

Posted on Last updated:

Can You Refreeze Hamburger?

People tend to change their minds. It’s just the nature of humanity, and nothing is wrong with it.

One thing people can sometimes change their minds about has to do with cooking.

You will take something out of the freezer for dinner, and then, by the time it’s thawed, you will decide you do not want it anymore.

In cases like this, it’s important to know whether it is possible to refreeze the food. This is especially true when it comes to meat.

One meat people might do this with is a hamburger, and by the end of this article, you’ll find out if you can refreeze both cooked and raw hamburgers that were previously been thawed.

Is It Possible to Refreeze Hamburger?

Let us first tell you it is entirely possible to refreeze hamburgers.

When we say this, we are referring to both raw and cooked hamburgers that were previously thawed.

In the next section, we’ll go into both types of cooked hamburgers more thoroughly.

Refreezing Cooked Hamburger

Once the cooked hamburger has thawed out, it can last for about three days in the fridge. This is how much time you have to either eat it or refreeze it.

Cooked hamburgers do tend to sometimes lose some of their taste and have texture changes because of the refreezing process. However, it is still edible, so that’s always a plus.

There are about three proven methods for thawing hamburgers, which we will cover later.

One unproven method is leaving it on the counter to thaw. This should never be done because bacteria love to grow at room temperature.

Hamburgers left out for more than an hour or two (depending on the temperature) can’t be refrozen. It needs to be eaten or thrown away.

It’s recommended the thawing and the refreezing process is done only once.

Refreezing Raw Hamburger

There are similar rules for refreezing raw hamburgers that were previously been thawed.

Once it is thawed, you can leave it in the fridge for 3 days or fewer before it has to either be used or refrozen.

The same goes for thawing raw hamburgers on the counter. This simply can’t be done to the bacteria that can grow on it.

Unlike with cooked hamburgers, there won’t be a huge loss of taste and texture given that raw hamburger has yet to be evenly cooked.

However, freezer burn could show up on the meat, so be aware of this. Freezer burn is easy to get rid of. You just cut it off and use the parts that are still fresh.

It’s best to only do the thawing and refreezing process once. The more times it goes through this process, the less edible and tasty the hamburger is going to be.

Given the price of everything these days, the last thing you want to do is waste anything!

How to Safely Thaw Hamburger

There are three proven methods of thawing hamburgers. This includes:

  • The safest method is to put the hamburger in the fridge to thaw. This goes for raw and cooked hamburgers. Just take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge overnight. In the morning or a couple of hours, it will be fully defrosted.
  • The cold water method is a quick method to thaw your hamburger if you find yourself short on time. To do this, keep the hamburger in the freezer bag and then put it in a bowl that is full of cold water. Keep changing the cold water every thirty minutes until the hamburger is finally thawed. Goes for both raw and cooked hamburgers.
  • The third and final method is even quicker than the cold water method! To do this, all you have to do is put the hamburger on a microwave-safe plate and then press defrost on your microwave. This method goes for both raw and cooked hamburgers.
  • What you need to know is that using the cold water or microwave method to thaw your hamburger can cause bacteria to grow on the hamburger. This is the reason it’s not always safe to refreeze the hamburger thawed by those two methods. You can, of course, but it comes with its risks.

How to Safely Freeze Hamburger

There are ways to freeze your raw hamburger safely. The safety tips to follow include:

  • The first step is to wrap the hamburger meat in foil, plastic wrap, or a freezer bag. Then put that in a zip-lock bag of some sort that is airtight. Doing these things will enable you to avoid freezer burn. Freezer burn isn’t the worst thing in the world, but it can be annoying to try to get off the meat before you cook it or heat it.
  • Second thing to keep in mind when freezing a hamburger is to write the date on the bag somewhere. The reason for this is so you know when the meat was first frozen and then refrozen. It will keep you from eating meat that has become spoiled! You can always still employ the sniff test before cooking it. Nothing wrong with that.

By following all these methods, you ensure your hamburger will be safe and good to eat during the entire freezing process.

Hamburger is one of those delicious classic foods we can’t get enough of. No point in wasting any of that meat!

Final Thoughts

And there you have it, all you hamburger and meat lovers out there. We told you it is possible to refreeze both your cooked and raw hamburgers that were previously been thawed.

Yes, we admit there are a lot of rules that you need to follow, and they can admittedly be a huge headache to follow.

However, when it comes to your health, you simply can’t take risks.

We admit it can seem like a lot at first. The more you end up thawing and refreezing your hamburger, the sooner it will eventually become second nature to you!

You might also be interested in the following: