How to distinguish fake or chemically treated Tet food.

Soy sauce

In East Asian culture, Tet (Lunar New Year) is a time when every family cooks many delicious dishes, and various dipping sauces are indispensable. Soy sauce is commonly used as a dipping sauce for many types of food, especially as an accompaniment to fried banh chung (Vietnamese sticky rice cake).

Soy sauce has healthy ingredients but is often adulterated with harmful chemicals. First, when buying, you need to carefully check the ingredients. The more flavor enhancers it contains, the less you should buy it. The main ingredients should be water, soybeans, salt, and wheat.

In terms of color, natural soy sauce is usually brown or light brown. Fake soy sauce is often darker. Pure soy sauce requires a rather long production process, therefore, its price is also higher.

Dried fruits, jams

Dried fruits or candied fruits are served to guests during Tet (Vietnamese New Year). If dried crudely, they look unappealing because they shrink, lose their shine, and lose their color. This is why manufacturers often use sulfur dioxide to make them more visually appealing.

The only way to distinguish them is by their shine; if they are too bright, especially with unusual colors like bright green, bright red, or bright orange, you should be wary. Additionally, you shouldn't buy those with the seeds removed or with ridges, as these may contain more bacteria. If you must buy them, choose whole dried fruits in bunches.

Chicken

Every housewife wants to buy "clean" chicken to ensure the health and safety of her family, but not everyone can distinguish between real and fake. For example, people believe that good quality chicken usually has yellow skin. However, chicken sellers may feed them lots of corn or other substances to add yellow pigment to the skin, or more simply, paint their skin with food coloring or turmeric powder.

Some people believe that the best chicken is usually small and takes longer to boil, but the weight and boiling time depend on the breed. Therefore, the best way is to buy chicken from reputable, familiar stores where you know the origin of the meat, such as free-range chicken or farm-raised chicken. Squeeze the throat area with your hand; if it feels hard, it's an old chicken, while if it feels soft, it's a young chicken or duck. Additionally, you should avoid poultry with black needle-like spots on the wings, as they may have been injected with water. If the muscle tissue makes a popping sound when tapped, and the skin appears swollen, it may also have been injected with water to increase its weight.

Wine

During Tet (Vietnamese New Year), many families gather together, and toasting with glasses of wine is an essential part of the celebration. However, due to its high cost, wine, especially red wine, is often counterfeited.

Instead of being made from fermented grape juice, counterfeit liquor uses synthetic grape flavoring powder and low-quality yeast, which can result in an unpleasant taste and even cause poisoning. Because of the dangers of counterfeit liquor, if possible, you should test it by: putting baking soda in a bowl and dropping some liquor on it. If it turns blue due to a chemical reaction, it is genuine liquor.

Rice

Rice is not only used for cooking rice, but also for making banh chung (traditional Vietnamese rice cakes) during Tet (Lunar New Year). Therefore, you should carefully check the origin and quality before cooking. Fake rice is not uncommon on the market now; it looks no different from real rice but its ingredients are potato starch, and sometimes even plastic. If it's fake rice, the cooked rice will not have a fragrant, sweet taste. You can also test it by taking a spoonful of rice and burning it. Fake rice will produce black smoke, a pungent smell, and a burnt plastic odor.

Red caviar

Red caviar is a delicacy that embodies European cuisine, but it's also used as a Tet (Lunar New Year) gift due to its nutritional value and luxurious appeal. It's not difficult to spot counterfeit red caviar products.

In reality, red caviar is a type of egg, so it won't be perfectly round but rather oval-shaped. Specifically, in the center, you can see a tiny core surrounded by fat. If you can't see this, it's definitely fake. Also, a tip is to buy red caviar in glass bottles for better observation, rather than in metal cans.