The fish I needed to use fairly quickly was not quite defrosted, I held it under the cold water tap to finish off the defrosting. Could you please tell me how unsafe this is and what would the dangers be when eating, after cooking of course. Thank you.

Hi there. You didn’t mention how the fish was defrosted initially, but defrosting frozen fish in water is a fairly safe thawing method if done correctly. However instead of holding it under the tap, our advise would have been to put the frozen fish in a leak proof plastic bag and immersed it in cold water. This way you will wash away no flavours. For the best result, frozen fish should be defrosted overnight in your refrigerator, as defrosting your frozen fish under water (without putting it in a plastic bag) causes loss of flavour. And thawing at room temperature should be avoided as this can allow for harmful bacteria to multiply!

If the fish was cooked immediately after defrosting there shouldn’t be any dangers with eating it.

Other thawing tips
• Do not thaw frozen fish at room temperature
• Always cook thawed fish that hasn’t been thawed in a refrigerator as soon as possible.
• Fish thawed in a refrigerator can be kept refrigerated for 2 days.
• Do not refreeze thawed fish. It is safe to refreeze fish once it has been cooked but some of its quality will be lost

Click here to meet Dave Hurford from Brixham harbour onboard The Constant Friend who catches the seafood you buy as frozen fish in the supermarkets.

Thank you for your frozen food question. Click here to see where your frozen food comes from.

The New Ice Age Team