As the Lunar New Year approaches, homemade food is in full swing.
At this time of year, the homemade food market is booming as the demand for ready-to-eat, handcrafted dishes continues to grow. These products not only meet people's need for convenience but also create increasingly high demands for quality, origin, and food safety during the Tet holiday.
Convenient shopping, meeting the diverse needs of the people.
The end of the year is a busy and stressful time, especially for those working in the service, finance, and business sectors. Ms. Cao Thi Anh Thu, a bank employee from My Ha neighborhood, Vinh Loc ward, shared that for the past three years, almost all of her family's Tet (Lunar New Year) food has been pre-ordered. "From the offerings for New Year's Eve, the feast for the first day of Tet, to the food for guests during the holiday, I buy everything in advance and freeze it in the refrigerator. It saves time, reduces fatigue, and allows for a wider variety of dishes," Ms. Thu said.
It's not just Ms. Thu; Ms. Tran Thanh Hoang, residing in Kim Thi apartment building, Vinh Hung ward, also chooses to order Tet food from familiar suppliers. With a small family and frequent visits to both sides of the family during Tet, making homemade sausages, pickled onions, or elaborate cooking would be "both time-consuming and wasteful." "Ordering just the right quantity allows us to adjust the seasonings to suit our family's taste, which is very convenient," Ms. Hoang said.
For large families, where the ancestral worship rituals last for many days, homemade food becomes even more advantageous. As the eldest daughter-in-law in Hoa Quan commune, Ms. Pham Thi Hong has to prepare the offerings from the afternoon of the 30th of the 12th lunar month until the end of the 3rd day of Tet, two trays each day. “If I cooked everything myself, I wouldn’t have time to visit and wish people a Happy New Year. I order pre-frozen spring rolls, pork sausage, veal sausage, dried meat, stir-fried vermicelli, stir-fried eel… I just need to reheat them when needed,” Ms. Hong shared.
Besides serving the needs of families, homemade food is also a popular choice for Tet (Lunar New Year) gifts. Products such as Vietnamese sausage, stir-fried pork, sausages, dried meat, marinated eel, coconut jam, and apricot wine are favored because they have a traditional, familiar feel and are easily adjusted to the recipient's taste. For many consumers, the "handmade" label means more meticulousness, cleanliness, and safety compared to mass-produced industrial food.
Raising hygiene standards to "retain" consumers.
Recognizing the growing consumer trend favoring handcrafted, ready-to-eat foods, many households and individuals have invested systematically in the business of homemade food during Tet (Lunar New Year).
Having been involved in the business for nearly 10 years, from the beginning of the twelfth lunar month, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kieu Oanh from Thanh Vinh ward proactively developed production plans, created menus, set prices, and took orders to serve the Tet holiday. According to Ms. Oanh, to ensure quality, all orders are finalized early, matching the processing capacity of the establishment. "Most customers are acquaintances who have been with us for many years, so quality and food safety are always our top priority," she said. Some dried goods such as dried beef and dried pork are delivered early, after the Tet Ong Cong, Ong Tao (Kitchen God) festival; while fresh products such as sausages, eels, etc., are delivered closer to Tet to ensure freshness.
Following the same trend, Ms. Tran Kim Dung, from Truong Vinh ward, who runs a business selling traditional Tet dishes such as jellied meat, canned meat, braised beef, salted beef, and colorful stir-fried vermicelli, said that she receives about 200 orders each Tet season, mainly concentrated between the 27th and 29th of Tet. With such a large volume of processing, Ms. Dung has to proactively prepare ingredients, arrange production time appropriately, and invest in additional equipment for preliminary processing and preservation to ensure both the timeliness and quality of the products.
In reality, not only is consumer demand increasing, but the homemade food market during Tet (Lunar New Year) also places increasingly high demands on food safety and hygiene. Many establishments have proactively adjusted their production scale and improved processing conditions to meet consumer requirements. At Ms. Hoang Thu Hien's homemade food establishment in Thanh Vinh ward, all stages of ingredient selection, processing, and preservation are carefully considered to ensure hygiene and safety. According to Ms. Hien, food production is not only about serving customers but also about responsibility towards public health. "From ingredient selection to processing and preservation, everything must be done carefully and cleanly," she shared.
According to Ms. Hien, food safety is not only a mandatory requirement of the market but also stems from the awareness and responsibility of those in the profession. For products serving Tet (Lunar New Year), starting from the beginning of November, the establishment prepares menus, cooks and samples for customers to assess taste; orders for out-of-province orders are finalized around the 15th day of the 12th lunar month, and domestic orders are finalized around the 20th day of the 12th lunar month to proactively plan production and avoid the situation of orders piling up close to Tet. To ensure quality, Ms. Hien accepts narrowing the delivery area for some items that are difficult to preserve for a long time.
Besides legitimate businesses, the homemade food market during Tet (Lunar New Year) also harbors considerable risks. In reality, many vendors act only as intermediaries, importing goods from wholesale markets and reselling them, without strict control over the origin of ingredients, processing methods, storage conditions, and expiration dates. Even more concerning, many production facilities are seasonal, small-scale, unregistered, and lack specific addresses, making management difficult; even a small oversight in processing or storage could pose a significant food safety risk.
Given this situation, authorities advise consumers to be cautious when buying homemade food, especially online; they should carefully research product information, choose reputable vendors with clear origins and specific contact information, and prioritize businesses with business registration or those recommended by acquaintances. Upon receiving the goods, only pay if the product meets quality standards, packaging, and storage conditions are correct, to avoid being cheated during the upcoming Tet holiday.
