The reason you should never use the defrost button on your microwave
You have probably seen people defrost food in the refrigerator or bowls of water, but almost none of us have ever or heard of someone actually using the defrost button on the microwave. Is there a reason you shouldn’t use the defrost button on your microwave? Here are 5 reasons why you shouldn’t use the defrost button on the microwave.
It Doesn’t Work in Most Cases
One of the most common reasons people don’t use the defrost option is that it simply doesn’t work as intended. It will dry out the surface of the food by the time it defrosts the center of the food. However, that isn’t the biggest reason to skip the defrost option on the microwave.
It Poses a Danger to Your Health
The reason you should never use the defrost button on your microwave is that it isn’t very safe. If you thaw the outside of your food, the inside is still frozen. This is dangerous when you try to cook the food at a lower temperature than you otherwise would, if the inside of the food doesn’t reach the necessary temperatures to kill bacteria. Trying to defrost a large frozen chicken breast for ten minutes or more risks reactivating the bacteria trapped in the frozen meat, and this is hard to fully eradicated by quickly cooking it to a so-called safe temperature in a frying pan. This danger is amplified if you defrost the meat in the fridge and then leave it in the refrigerator for several hours.
Furthermore, you should never try to cook raw meat to “completion” in your microwave. It needs to hit the oven or stovetop until completely cooked. In summary, you can only safely defrost meat in the microwave if you immediately and fully cook it in another way.
It Ruins the Texture of Food
Suppose you defrost the food in the microwave and cook it immediately after defrosting it, eliminating the risk that bacteria sits in the danger zone of 40 to 140 degrees F. Microwaving tends to make meat rubbery. Crispy foods are softened. And moist foods are dried out as the moisture escapes from the food. This is why you should reheat food the same way it was prepared instead of defrosting and reheating in the microwave.
Defrosting in a Microwave Certain Containers Makes Things Worse
A lot of people put food in the freezer while it is still in the foam tray they were eating it from, or they may wrap it in plastic to protect it from the cold air. Unfortunately, people tend to put this frozen mass in the microwave as is before turning on the microwave to defrost it. The problem is that this causes the chemicals in the foam or plastic to leach into the food before you cook it. Always put the food in a microwave safe container before defrosting or cooking it.
It Destroys the Nutritional Value of the Food
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin. Microwaving fruits and vegetables can destroy the vitamin C content. The issue is even worse if you try to defrost frozen herbs in the microwave. The microwave defrost process can cause them to lose some of their natural color, too.
