Refrigerators should not be fully stocked and cooked Lunar New Year holiday dishes should not be heated more than twice to ensure food safety, medical experts said.
Gastroenterologist Chiang Chien-chang (江建昌) said the risks of infectious diseases or food safety tend to increase during the Lunar New Year holiday, as people get together and eat leftovers that are repeatedly heated.
The number of emergency patients usually surge from the third to the fourth day of the Lunar New Year holiday, he added.
Photo: Taipei Times
“Fridges can only lower the temperature, they cannot kill bacteria,” Chiang said, adding that they should be tidied every week and cleaned monthly.
A refrigerator should always be left up to 70 percent full to ensure that the cold air can circulate inside to keep the temperature low enough to store food, while food without an expiration date on wrappers or a storage period should be discarded, he said.
Although most people buy and store ingredients beforehand, as many stores would be closed during the holiday, Chiang advised against buying too much and storing vegetables in refrigerators for more than one week.
Food of large quantities should be divided and stored in smaller packages to avoid repeatedly freezing and thawing, he said.
Homemade rice dishes such as turnip cake should be put in the refrigerator within two hours, otherwise bacteria can rapidly reproduce at temperatures of 20°C to 50°C, Chiang said.
Chiang also advised against heating cooked food more than twice.
While leftovers should be boiled, seafood, green vegetables and fried food should be eaten on the day they are cooked instead of being heated again, to prevent the reproduction of bacteria and the generation of carcinogens, he said.
Linkou Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital Clinical Poison Center nurse Tan Tun-tzu (譚敦慈) also suggested leaving space inside refrigerators.
Tan said she grew up in poverty and preferred not to waste food resources, but for the sake of food safety, refrigerators should be thoroughly cleaned up before shopping for dishes for the Lunar New Year holiday.
Stale items, half-eaten canned food or expired ingredients should be thrown away, she said.
Sauces and dried food can be divided and put into smaller packages before they are labeled and stored in refrigerators, so one can be certain of what they already have and avoid buying more, Tan said.
Pork, chicken and fish — the three most commonly eaten types of food during the Lunar New Year holiday — should have their bones removed before being stored in refrigerators, to save space, she added.
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