When food is frozen to a temperature of 0 degrees Fahrenheit or below, the bacteria that can cause foodborne illness enter a dormant stage. For as long as the food remains frozen, the bacteria will not grow.
Dormant bacteria, also called spores, are very resilient and can survive many years in their sleeping state. They can monitor their environment and when they sense favorable conditions, they wake up and become active once again.
Once the previously frozen food is thawed and the bacteria are woken up, it’s crucial to keep the food outside the unsafe temperature range where it could spoil. The FDA calls the range between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit the '_danger zone_' because it’s within this window that bacteria grow the fastest.
Freezing can still impact the food's quality, as some texture and flavor changes can occur, despite the absence of bacterial activity.
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