How Long Frozen Meat Lasts: The 2026 FoodSafety.gov Chart

FoodSafety.gov, the federal food-safety gateway maintained with USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, publishes one cold storage chart with refrigerator and freezer times. These are the rows that matter for a freezer full of local meat, quoted as printed in September 2026.

Two patterns explain the chart. Whole muscle cuts last longest because they have the least surface area exposed to air and the least fat mixed through them. Ground meat, sausage, and anything cured or salted last shortest, because grinding exposes fat to oxygen and salt speeds rancidity even in the freezer. On a half beef, the ground beef and the bacon from a hog are the clocks that run fastest; eat them first and save the roasts.

The chart gives 4 to 12 months for a steak because it covers a steak in supermarket plastic and a steak in a vacuum bag. University of Missouri Extension's freezing guide states that store wrap "is not meant for long-term freezer storage," calls for moisture-vapor-proof packaging, and recommends two layers of freezer paper between pieces so they separate. It also warns to trim excess fat, which goes rancid, and to get all the air out of bags.

Ask the plant which it uses before the animal is cut. Vacuum sealing sometimes costs a few cents a pound more and is worth it on any purchase that will take more than six months to eat. If the plant only wraps in paper, plan to eat the bone-in cuts inside six months and the boneless cuts inside nine. Our cut sheet guide covers the wrap line on the form.

Freezer burn is dehydration. Where air touches frozen meat, water sublimates from the surface and leaves dry, gray or white, leathery patches; on red meat the patches are brownish and on poultry they are pale. Missouri Extension describes it as air drying the food. It is not a safety problem. FSIS's guidance is that freezer-burned portions can be cut away before or after cooking, and that heavily freezer-burned food may be discarded for quality.

Three things cause it in a home freezer of bulk meat: packages with air inside, packages that were punctured (bone-in cuts are the usual culprits), and temperature swings. Frost-free upright freezers cycle warm briefly to melt frost, and every cycle moves a little moisture out of a loosely wrapped package; a manual-defrost chest freezer holds steadier. Missouri Extension's rule is to keep the freezer at 0 F and not let the temperature fluctuate. A steak that is freezer-burned at four months was badly wrapped; a steak that is fine at twelve was vacuum sealed and left alone.

FSIS recognizes three safe ways to thaw meat and poultry, and the method you use decides whether you can refreeze it later without cooking. The unsafe method is the counter: meat left at room temperature warms past 40 F on the outside while the center is still frozen, and bacteria multiply on the surface. FSIS's guidance is never to thaw at room temperature.

For a household with a bulk freezer, the refrigerator method is the one to build around. Moving tomorrow's package to the refrigerator tonight is a habit, and a package thawed that way can go back in the freezer if plans change. Cold-water and microwave thawing are for the night you forgot; both require cooking before any refreezing.

FSIS's rule is simple: once food is thawed in the refrigerator, it is safe to refreeze without cooking, although there may be a loss of quality from the moisture lost in thawing. Food thawed by other methods should be cooked before refreezing. After cooking raw food that was previously frozen, it is safe to freeze the cooked food. And if previously cooked food is thawed in the refrigerator, you may refreeze the unused portion.

Quality is the cost. Each freeze and thaw breaks more cell walls and pushes out more moisture, so a twice-frozen steak is drier than a once-frozen one. Refreezing is safe under the rules above; it is just not free. Clemson's freezer-failure guidance adds the judgment call: ground, cubed, and sliced meats and all seafood are the most perishable, and if fully thawed they are best discarded rather than refrozen.

A half beef is 100 to 150 packages that all look alike in a chest freezer, and the chart only helps if you know which package is which and how old it is. The plant labels each package with the cut and usually the weight; it does not always date them, and it never tells you where in the freezer they are.

Eating order for a mixed freezer of beef, pork, and poultry, from the chart: bacon and sausage in the first month or two, ground beef and ground pork inside three to four, whole chickens and pork chops through the year, and vacuum-sealed beef roasts and steaks last. A freezer rotated on that order wastes nothing from a half beef; a freezer eaten from the top down wastes the roasts. The freezer guide covers bins and layout, and the half cow guide covers what arrives on pickup day.

The chart assumes the meat went into your freezer frozen. Most plants freeze packages solid before pickup, and the risk is the trip. Frozen meat in an insulated cooler, packed tight with no air space, holds for several hours; in a car trunk in summer, loose packages start to thaw at the edges within an hour. If any package is soft when you unload, it goes on top to be eaten first, not into the back of the bin for next year.

Some custom-exempt and small plants hand over fresh, unfrozen cuts. Then the household freezer has to do the freezing, and Oklahoma State's guidance applies: freeze fast and cold, ideally at minus 10 F or lower, in a single layer with space between packages, and do not stack a hundred warm packages in one pile. Freeze in batches of what the freezer can take in 24 hours and hold the rest in the refrigerator within the chart's refrigerator days. A whole hog's worth of fresh pork is more than most home freezers can freeze at once; ask the plant to freeze it.