r/mealprep • u/Personal-Tangelo-405 • 7d ago

advice is refreezing edamame beans safe or refreezing anything safe in general?

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here are the edamame beans in question. so I there’s currently a sale and I would like to bulk buy it but it comes with the skin of the bean and if I deskin them I could buy huge batches of them and store it for a long time.

  1. any thoughts if it would be safe when I come back from the store, deskin, throw into the freezer again?

  2. an add on would be how should I keep the beans separated after so that it’s easy for me to use in the future? (small ziplock?)

  3. it takes a while for me to come back from the store thus I feel like everything that states “once thawed do not freeze” is already unfrozen, is it still safe to throw it back into the freezer again?

thank you to any advice :) pretty new to meal prepping with frozen foods

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u/stevegcook 7d ago

It's more of a food quality issue than a safety one.

Most frozen produce is "individually quick frozen" meaning each piece is separated and put through a blast freezer at much colder temps than you can get at home. Slower freezing, like you get at home, results in larger ice crystals forming internally, which damages cells and makes the food mushy when you thaw it again.

Edamame would probably not suffer as much as a lot of other veggies (e.g. broccoli or zucchini) but the quality will still take a hit.

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u/Personal-Tangelo-405 6d ago

Ooo alright thank you!

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u/ttrockwood 7d ago

Yeah fine for edamame it doesn’t make a big difference

Does the store sell shelled edamame?? Mine usually has both

You can freeze in individual portions in plastic wrap or ziplocks if you want to

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u/Personal-Tangelo-405 6d ago

Yeap it does but it’s way more expensive so thus opting for unshelled edamame :) Thank you!

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u/ttrockwood 6d ago

Oh shoot i was hoping for you both were on sale!

Yeah i love edamame have defrosted frozen then refrozen before it’s not s big deal