Freezing food when it's hot or cold?

Putting piping hot food into the freezer is not a good idea. Best to let the food rest just until it is cool enough to handle bare-handed, then freeze it. Once food reaches room temperature, you have a window of about 30 minutes before it needs to go in the refrigerator to avoid bacteria .

You always want to thaw food in cold water if you're trying to thaw something quickly. It -will- thaw pretty quickly. Trying to thaw it in hot water will heat up the outside, but you risk bacterial growth. As the heat penetrates the meat, the edges have come into the perfect temperature for bacteria to thrive. If you use cold water, it will thaw just the same, whilst keeping the outer parts of your food at a relatively cool and safe temperature.

Never let it cool on the bench because, as you say bacteria will develop. If it's really hot maybe put in it the fridge for an hour before freezing.

Holy ****! Cool it with cool water, then freeze it! Cooling takes what 5 minutes and do you think bacteria grows in 5 minutes? If it does, you would be dead every time you eat dinner!

Always let it cool properly first.

Adding hot or warm food to a freezer raises the temp inside the unit causing foods already frozen to partially de-frost.

Freeze it hot and you'll defrost the other food in your freezer. Not a good idea

Unless the freezer is fairly ancient it cools the food quickly enough for it not to affect other items. I think your main worry is if it will melt your ziploc or freezer container!

only after the food has cooled

when it's cooled downed