This really annoys me! We are a small household, shop once a fortnight and I portion out our shopping and freeze into meal sized lots. I have avoided foods marked “Thawed for your convenience”.
Recently I bought 2 trays of Inghams Chicken Tenders as they were going very cheap, and at home froze them into 6 portions. It was only when I was looking over the label for cooking instructions that I saw in microscopic writing “Thawed for your convenience, not suitable to freeze”. I checked the Inghams Chicken Schnitzels (a pack of 15) that we usually buy to find the same microscopic wording and had to leave them in the store.
A shop “thawing for your convenience” I can understand, but a manufacturer who thaws a frozen product for sale, taking a storage option away from the consumer, I find annoying. Our shop does not have frozen Ingham products.
I would like to see this wording in the same sized letters as the storage instructions; eg “Refrigerate after opening, do not freeze” in bold and/or larger letters; than a statement further down in small print.
I noticed that our local Woollies has a hand written sign up at the deli section that they are no longer allowed to sell frozen foods, including seafood from the deli area. It also says that if one wishes to buy frozen foods, to go to the frozen food section of the supermarket for equivalent products.
I wonder if the supermarkets have had a change of policy in relation to frozen items from the deli…and also wonder if it is a measure to try and prevent (frozen) imported seafood being used as bait…which led to the disease outbreak in farmed prawns in south east Queensland.
I saw the sign at our local Woollies but I an sure that it mentioned that the reason was that they could not accurately weigh the product prior to thawing due to any water content of any ice.
Rather than ice, it could be the product. Thawing causes water loss as cells are ruptured causing water to drain from the product. Maybe they have received complaints from customers who have thawed the product and the packaging containing a significant volume of water…paid for at the price of the product when a thawed in store product would not have such water when purchased.
In reference to the woolies sign, I had to wait 20mins while some frozen fish fillets were thawed (in water!!!) so they could sell them to me.
The practice of thawing in water (cold, warm) i believe can be a health hazard, suffice to say said fillets were eaten that night.
Advice on thawing frozen food almost always states to place it in the fridge until thawed but we often place items in the sink in cold water with carefull supervision.
It is not just deli foods of “fresh” food that are thawed before sale. Check out bread, bread rolls etc especially the par-cooked ones that you meant to finish in the oven, packs of banana bread slices etc. They all say not suitable for freezing but if you check the ingredients list there is nothing that could not be frozen. Its because the products have been thawed before sale. I have even found damp and even wet packets on the shelf.
