'Secret' to safely preserve banh chung and gio cha during Tet

Traditional Tet foods such as banh chung, banh tet, gio, cha... are prepared at least 1-2 days before consumers buy them. Preserving them to keep them fresh and delicious for a long time is always a problem that gives many housewives a headache.

You can store banh chung in the refrigerator and boil, fry, or steam it again before eating - Photo: TTO

Tet is an occasion for family members to gather and enjoy delicious food, so many families tend to buy traditional foods such as ham, sausage, nem chua, banh chung, banh tet, etc. to use in advance and store in the refrigerator.

How to preserve food to maintain its nutritional value, flavor, and ensure food safety to help make family meals delicious and nutritious is a top priority. Depending on the characteristics of each type of food, we can preserve it in different ways.

Dr. Ngo Thi Ha Phuong, National Institute of Nutrition, said that some traditional Tet foods such as banh chung and gio cha are prepared at least 1-2 days before consumers buy them. The characteristic of this food group is that it can be stored in cool, dust-free, and humid conditions.

However, with the hot and humid weather conditions in our country, food is easily attacked by bacteria, fungi, mold leading to spoilage and food poisoning. Therefore, you should not stock up on too much food, but only buy enough, both to avoid waste and to ensure food hygiene and safety.

Chung cake, Tet cake

This is a relatively complete dish in terms of food groups (carbohydrates, proteins, lipids) and is rich in nutrients. Many people often think that banh chung should not be stored in the refrigerator because it is easy to become hard. However, if the weather is hot, it can be stored in the refrigerator, cut as you eat, and cover the rest with plastic wrap.

Note: When taking the cake out of the refrigerator, you need to boil, steam or fry it before eating. You should limit frying the cake because it increases the amount of fat (oil/grease) in your daily diet, which is not good for your health.

Ham, sausage

Pork sausage is mainly made from lean pork, fish sauce and spices, and cannot be kept for long. The storage method for pork sausage, beef sausage, and sausage is the same.

When stored properly, ham will keep for 4-6 days in the refrigerator, or even for about 10 days in the freezer if you accidentally buy too much. Remove ham from the freezer and leave at room temperature for about 4 hours or transfer to the refrigerator 8 hours before use.

Ear sausage and stir-fried sausage, due to their sticky nature, must be kept at cool, cold temperatures, so to preserve them, they should be kept in the refrigerator.

Jellied meat

Depending on taste, jellied meat can be made from many types such as: pork belly, pork belly, ham hock...

Jellied meat has a characteristic aroma of meat, pepper, shiitake mushrooms, and wood ear mushrooms. With jellied meat, it should be divided into small boxes, enough for each meal, and stored in the refrigerator, both to retain the characteristic flavor and to help the dish last longer.

Pickled onions are an attractive dish for Tet - Photo: TTO

Pickled onions

The mild sourness, slight spiciness and aroma of pickled onions help enhance the flavor of other dishes and stimulate better digestion.

Should be stored in a cool place, when eating, use clean chopsticks to pick up the pickled onions, rinse with cooled boiled water or diluted salt water, then peel off the outer skin, take the white pickled onions to eat.

With other cooked foods, you should not put vegetables in the refrigerator when not used up, because the nitrate content in green vegetables is quite high. If cooked and left for too long, the bacteria will decompose, the nitrate will turn into nitrite - a carcinogen, and cannot be removed even if reheated.

So you should not eat cooked vegetables left overnight.

Cooked foods should be eaten immediately and should not be left at room temperature for more than 2 hours. Leftover foods should be reheated, cooled, and then placed in the refrigerator.

When eating, you must cook food again before using it because the temperature in the refrigerator only limits the growth of bacteria but cannot destroy it.

However, the refrigerator is not a "magic cabinet" for preserving food. Food taken out of the refrigerator is only used once for the next meal, and if not left over for the next meal, the longest the food can be kept is 5-6 hours.

Food contaminated with bacteria, left in the refrigerator for a long time, still produces toxins. When reheated, bacteria will be destroyed at a temperature of 100ºC, but the toxins produced by the bacteria will still be toxic, causing poisoning to the user.

You should prepare just enough food, don't overcook it, because reheating leftover food will cause loss of nutrients.

Experts say not to mix raw food with cooked food. Food stored in the refrigerator should be kept in separate, tightly covered containers.

Cooked and processed foods should be kept on the top shelf of the refrigerator. Do not put too much food in the refrigerator, as this will prevent cold air from circulating, causing the temperature in some areas of the refrigerator to increase, spoiling the food.

If the refrigerator is full of food, adjust the temperature down and clean the refrigerator regularly.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bi-kip-bao-quan-banh-chung-gio-cha-an-toan-ngay-tet-20250130100332029.htm