What is the best way to package meat for freezing so that it stays fresh?

How long can you keep meat in the freezer before it loses it's freshness and inches into freezer burn?

I either just transfer it from it's meat counter packaging styrofoam and plastic secured ordeal and plop it right in the freezer or I take it out and use ziploc bags making sure there is as little air in there as possible.

Great post topic. I will be happy to see what others do to see if something works better than these 2 above.

Meat is store freezing in butcher papper on how its wrapped if fresh its year good up to 6 or 7 months Im talking about beef all others if wrapped good can be stored 4 to 6 months in the freezor last time we raised cattle here at Mr. o'S ranch we call mr. o's ranch dad this is what he wanted it called so we call it behind his back MR. O's ranch burgers.

No beef I know other meat I really think best really wrapped up with constant good temp. imn freezor 6 months I don't know about fish or poltry that I am learning.

I seal a lot of meat in food saver bags.  This really helps prevent "freezer burn".  Sometimes I will use plastic wrap and then zip loc bags, for small amounts of meat found on sale, or leftovers. We use old fashioned butcher paper when we are processing a lot of meat at once.  With butcher paper the meat is always wrapped twice.

Some things to remember are that you should get as much air as possible out of the package before freezing.  Quick freeze the meat, dont' stack several packages on top of each other until they are all frozen solid.  Make sure your freezer temps stay constant.  Even a few degrees of variation will effect the long term quality of your frozen product.  Be careful in moving frozen products, even a pin hole in the packaging will cause deteriation. 

I have kept meat frozen, properly wraped for up to two years.  This is in a chest freezer.  The freezer above your kitchen refridgerator is not cold enough to keep meat longer than a few months.  The temp changes in a freezer compartment above your fridg will also effect the long term storage life of frozen foods. 

 These aren't sceintific rules, just what I have learned from experience. 

Over the butcher papper I seal it in with other type plactic I don't want those expensive meats to have like voilet said freezer burn with over 20 years of doing and raising cows for the passt 2 years was a no get attached to a few of them and to expensive miss the good flavor ..

Im just about eatting more of other meats like chicken little pork not much and tofo just about vegitarain.

Violet is clearly the expert to ask. I knew this about her though even before this post but this post she really came through with some good advice. Thank you dear! I honestly don't freeze much meat as I prefer eating it fresh or buying frozen like seafood/shrimp... but sometimes I do find good markdowns and have more than I can handle at once and have to freeze if I decide I'm going to purchase so this advice really helps.

mennonitemom:

I usually use freezer Ziploc (or generic) bags

I use storage bags. I have found Ziplock and Walgreen's brand work the best. Others I have used do not keep the food as long as those.

I try to purchase my meat in "family size" packs so that I can have several meals from one package of meat.  I use plastic wrap to rewrap the meat and then store them in freezer bags.  I also use sandwich size baggies to store shredded, cooked,  chicken turkey, or precooked ground beef in 2 cup portions. I squeeze as much air out of the bags as possible and then store the small bags in a larger freezer bag.