100 Ways to Reduce Your Impact

Step 35 Dont defrost food with running water

Not defrosting your frozen foods with water saves 50 to 150 gallons a month.

Defrost it on your counter, and take that time to read some new Instructables!

Comments

[SamuraiNinjaGuy]

Garnetmoth is correct, allowing your food to defrost on the counter is unsafe and can be unhealthy. By defrosting it on the counter, you allow the outside of the product to warm to temperatures where microbial reproduction occurs at a faster rate. In other words, higher chance of food borne illness. Ideally you should move foods to the fridge 2-3 days (depending on the weight/thickness of the item) prior to cooking if you cannot cook the item from a frozen state. This also has the added benefit of requiring you to plan meals in advance (helps you maintain a healthy diet, and improves shopping efficiency). In a pinch though, defrosting food under cool/cold running water is the best (read: Least likely to cause illness) way to defrost food. Hot water is actually slower (something about it beginning the cooking process on the outside of the item, slowing the thawing of the center) and it uses electricity/gas depending on your water heater.

[greenwink]

Oh, it's supposed to take 2-3 days to defrost.  And here I thought I was keeping my fridge too chilled to properly defrost food.  LOL.  Thanks, SamuraiNinjaGuy, for explaining that.  I'm going to try out the fridge defrosting idea again.  Although, I've been defrosting on the counters for over 20 years & no one's gotten sick from doing so.  

[kmerkle]

HERE HERE! defrosting in the fridge is best because the fridge now has to work less to keep the other items cool.

[mondaymonkey]

ive eating cheese thats sat in the bottom of my hiking bag for 2 weeks on a damp, rainy west coast hike... and I routinely drink out of sketchy water sources (water seeping down a rock face, little streams stained yellow from the sediment... it didn't taste much different, and it was VERY refreshingly cold) while away from civilziation without chlorine or filteration... and i've never gotten sick. So I mean, what huge risk is it?

[SamuraiNinjaGuy]

Ok, first off, usually cheese is kept in a fridge. Cheese does not spoil quickly which is why we store it in the fridge. We were speaking of frozen items. Specifically I was meaning raw meats. While you can certainly do as you please, people do die of food poisoning. Not a lot here in the US (around 5000 a year), in other countries (most of which can't even read this) it is a bigger risk problem. And while 5000 isn't a lot, I was merely providing an eco friendly alternative (presuming you have a fridge already....) that is also a safer alternative.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs237/en/
Ideally food should be kept either below 40 degrees, or above 140 degrees. The middle range is where bacteria (specifically the ones that cause most cases of food poisoning) reproduce the fastest. That said, I've eaten pizza that sat out for well over a week. It tasted bad, but I didn't get sick. However, I had some undercooked ground turkey 5 hours after it was prepared (and improperly stored...left on the stove) and it had me blowing chunks. Not all foods are as large of a risk as others.

As for your water comment, I wasn't just saying that our water treatment kept us safe, I was questioning how damaging it was to to our water supply to allow pets to urinate/defecate wherever. (in other words, we agreed with each other, but where as you have a personal experience example, I don't).

[fwater]

#1. Thin-air statistic. #2. Endangerring the health of anyone reading these regurgitated eco feelgoods. Double fail. Or, flawless fail.

[garnetmoth]

Hello! There are definitely some good tips on this list. I would suggest defrosting in the refrigerator or as part of cooking on stove or microwave. I know "everyone grew up with food defrosted on the counter" but there is a higher risk of food poisoning this way. Thanks for making this Instructable!