Buzz
In today's market, the abundance of food items with unknown origins is alarming. Be a savvy consumer to safeguard your and your family's health!
With the current emphasis on food safety, it's surprising to find produce still fresh despite undergoing various treatments. When navigating through grocery stores or supermarkets, the dilemma of choosing fresh and hygienic products often arises. Hence, let's explore some ingenious tips provided by PasGo to ensure the selection of the safest and highest quality food items for the well-being of your loved ones and family!
1. Selecting fresh and quality meat
Ensure the meat piece is firm, avoiding those with a dull color. A good meat piece should feel resilient when touched, soft when pressed, slightly sticky, with a dry outer membrane, and not slimy.
For mainly lean pork cuts with little fat, if the meat has a dark red color similar to beef, it's likely been treated with growth-promoting substances containing corticoid chemicals. Corticoid is known to disrupt metabolism and increase the risk of bladder cancer.
If you have a keen sense of smell, try sniffing the meat piece. Fresh meat should have no strange odor, rotten smell, or antibiotic scent.
2. Selecting various types of vegetables and fruits
Tips for selecting vegetables:
Common vegetables such as spinach, cabbage, lettuce, and water spinach... Avoid buying overly 'tempting' ones, like excessively tender leaves, dark green color, crispy texture, and almost no signs of pests or diseases. These are vegetables that have been heavily treated with harmful pesticides detrimental to human health.
Tips for choosing delicious watermelon:
- When selecting watermelon, choose those with small stems, dry tails, slightly sunken bottoms, indicating ripeness, sweetness, and the ability to make a hollow sound when tapped; a hollow sound indicates thin rind.
- A watermelon with one end larger than the other tends to have fewer seeds.
Tips for selecting avocados:
- Avocados are notoriously tricky to choose. You can inspect the stem and gently squeeze to see if the fruit is uniformly soft; shaking it to listen for a rattling noise indicates the seeds have detached (meaning the avocado is ripe, while firmly attached seeds suggest it's still immature).
- If the avocado's stem end appears black upon removal, it's spoiled; if it's greenish-yellow, the avocado is fresh, with no black discoloration in the flesh.
Tips for choosing mangoes:
Choose mangoes with taut, shiny skin, bright yellow color, avoiding those with dark spots or blemishes. You can check by pressing the skin; if it feels soft but doesn't indent, the mango is good.
How to tell if potatoes are old or fresh:
You can use your finger (sharp) to scrape off some of the outer skin of the potato to see its color. If the color has turned green, the potato has accumulated toxins from being left for too long and should not be used. If the potato still retains its characteristic golden hue, it is fresh and good to use.
Note: Avoid selecting potatoes that have sprouted as they contain toxins.
3. Tips for choosing various types of seafood
Tips for selecting fresh live fish:
Naturally farmed fish have a deliciously sweet taste and firm flesh. However, fish raised on industrial feed containing antibiotics have less firm flesh, are prone to spoilage, and have a tendency to become mushy and develop an off-putting taste when cooked.
Tips for selecting fresh shrimp:
Good shrimp should have a firm body, intact shell, white color inside, not cloudy or turning red or yellow. The head should be firmly attached to the body, the legs still intact, and there should be no fishy or off-putting smell. Absolutely avoid buying shrimp that have turned deep pink, with detached heads and legs, and a rotten smell, as they have been stored for too long and are not only unpleasant but also potentially dangerous.
Note: The secret to distinguishing freshness depends on the type of shrimp:
+ Lobster: Lobsters with greenish-blue claws and shiny shells are fresh and delicious.
+ Glass shrimp: Shrimp should be lively, with a pinkish-white color and green eyes.
+ Prawn: It should have a smooth, shiny shell, with a clear distinction between the fresh and translucent parts of the body.
Tips for choosing delicious crab:
Crabs should still be alive. When pressing on the crab's apron, if it's firm, it indicates ample meat, with the outer shell being slightly grayish. The apron should still firmly attach to the body, and the legs and claws should move vigorously. The spikes on the claws and the crab's main shell should retain their original color. Pressing firmly on the crab's swimmer fin should feel solid. When gently tapping, you should feel a firm sensation. Gripping tightly on the lower abdomen of the crab, if the legs and claws are straight and not bent, it indicates a healthy, delicious crab.
Note: Absolutely avoid buying crabs with watery shells, greenish swimmer fins and main shells, soft aprons when pressed, and uncertain claw movements; these are signs of soft, meatless crabs that are not tasty at all.
Here are some handy tips for selecting the freshest and most delicious foods to ensure your health. Wishing you all the best of success!
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Compiled by Ngoc Anh - PasGo.vn
