Have been given some chicken carcasses, imagine they have been previously frozen. Can I safely freeze them again, thank you?

On my understanding, you can freeze raw meat then defrost and cook it and then freeze the cooked meat. But not freeze raw meat twice.

Perhaps I should have added these are for the dogs, does that make a difference?

I think in order for food to be de-contaminated, the cooking removes the bacteria and the freezing stops it multiplying. If you've defrosted it, any bacteria could have multiplied and therefore I wouldn't feed it, but others may disagree.

> Can I safely freeze them again, thank you?

Yes you can re-freeze meat for the dogs BUT I wouldn't leave chicken out of the fridge for too long in this heat.  I'd re freeze in small pack sizes then give them to the dogs still frozen, or only partially defrosted :)

I would as long as it hasnt been defrosted for very long. Dogs digestions and sytems are so different to ours I would never do this for humans have however on a few occasions put part defrosted meat back in the freezer for them with no ill effect agree with dab

Personally I wouldnt refreeze raw meat even for the dogs.

I feed meat to the dogs that has been refrozen - often several times over - and never had any ill effects. I freeze large meaty bones and give them to the dogs frozen. After a suitable time the bones are taken away and popped back into the dog freezer for another day - been doing this for years.

Ok, that works/suits you but all I'm saying is its not what I would do...

> xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Ok, that works/suits you but all I'm saying is its not what I would do...

:-) Wasn't replying to you in particular - I just clicked on the last comment to reply which is how I normally add a comment. Not saying my way is right either.......... it's just what I do :-)

The refreezing of meat is not recommended unless it has been cooked before refreezing, however if you are going to cook before serving I would think it would be fine, if you are hoping to feed raw I would if it had gone from freezer to fridge and from fridge to freezer but I would worry about the change in tissue and bone with repeated freeze & thaw.

> The refreezing of meat is not recommended unless it has been cooked before refreezing,

Not recommended by whom, and for whom?  Most of the 'rules' we were brought up with apply to human food not for pets...

Well I have the same standards for my pet as I do for myself, I am not saying there is a problem just that I would not recommend it. No one needs to take any notice of what I say but the OP asked and I have answered the question, it is up to them if they take anyone's advice, whose they take.

I've been asking on a raw feeding FB group about this, after acquiring 3 kg 'slabs' of minced chicken carcass.  I was told that it's safe to do for dogs, and in fact while it's not recommended for humans, this has more to do with texture and palatability than it has to do with safety.  I don't know how true that is, but I've thawed and re-frozen all of that mince with no ill-effect :-)

ETA, while totally anecdotal, this makes a lot of sense:

http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/1363/how-dangerous-is-it-to-refreeze-meat-that-has-been-thawed

I often refreeze meat for our adults, but I wouldn't do it for puppies.

Thank you all for your replies, decided to boil them up, simmer, leave to cool and them pick off any meat in the morning. It seems a waste to just throw out & next time I will find an opportunity to ask how it has previously been kept.