I was in Shaw's the other day and there was a great sale on chicken breasts so I figured I would stock up. Usually, I buy the lower priced valu-paks and then when I get home I split them up and freeze one and cook up the other. I had been wrapping the meat to freeze in the original saran wrap and then putting it in a tupperware.
I got to talking with the butcher and asked about the best way to store meat. He said that you are best off taking the meat out of the store packaging and putting it in airtight packaging, ideally something with a vacuum seal. He said that he had recently tried the reynolds handi-vac vacuum sealer that you can buy right there at the store. He said it works great and really provides an air tight seal to better preserve your meat.
He also said that if you store the meat in the store packaging (standard wrap with the styrofoam plates) you can expect the meat to store without freezer burn for several months in your freezer. Adn that if you just tightly wrap the meat in saran wrap and then put in tupperware or a ziplock this works well too. your meat will be more susceptible to freezer burn, which is not bad for you healthwise it just compromises the taste and consistency of the meat. IF there is freezer burn, He says he just cuts off the pieces that have freezer burn and discards them. I always worried that if the meat had freezer burn it meant it had gone bad. good to know that it is okay to eat as I had been throwing away perfectly good meat!
If you want to keep the meat frozen for a more than a couple of months, you should vacuum seal or double wrap in saran wrap and then wrap in heavy aluminum foil to cut down on the amount of air in contact with the meat.
