If you leave your dinner defrosting at the bottom of the fridge all day, we’ve got bad news for you.
According to Susanne Ekstedt, a researcher at the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, this common method of defrosting totally ruins food.
“There has never been any good scientific evidence behind the advice that food should be thawed in the refrigerator,” she said, according to sciencenordic.com.
“Maybe the idea behind this advice is that refrigerator thawing is most hygienic. It is true that meat and other foodstuffs should be stored in the refrigerator if they are thawed, but it is definitely better to thaw food quickly in water if you are going to use it right away.”
According to Ekstedt, frozen food should be defrosted as quickly as possible in order to maintain a fresh taste.
When food is kept near the temperature of freezing, ice crystals are able to form on its surface, altering its natural texture.
This can leave you with dry meat and lacklustre veg.
Ekstedt recommends ditching the freezer method and defrosting frozen goods in cold water instead, as water conducts heat better than air and speeds up the thawing process.
The Food Standards Agency recommends both the water and fridge method, but doesn’t offer any advice on how these may affect the taste of food.
It also says you should anever thaw food at room temperature, such as on the counter top, to avoid food poisoning.
“There are three safe ways to defrost food: in the refrigerator, in cold water, and in the microwave,” it adds.
“Food thawed in cold water or in the microwave should be cooked immediately.”