Ornamental kumquat trees are the choice of many families every Tet holiday with the desire to bring luck, fortune and prosperity. After Tet, when the tree begins to fall leaves and gradually wither, many housewives take advantage of the tangerines on the tree to eat or process. This needs to be considered from both aesthetic, economic and health safety perspectives.
First of all, it is necessary to understand that ornamental tangerines are mainly grown for decoration purposes, not for food. To keep the tree in a beautiful shape, bearing many fruits, ripening evenly and wilting for a long time throughout the display period, growers often use chemical fertilizers, growth stimulants, and pesticides with a higher frequency than ordinary fruit trees. Some gardeners also treat the fruit with pesticides, shading the skin to make the fruit have eye-catching colors. Therefore, the risk of chemical residues on the skin and even in the flesh of the fruit is unavoidable.
In terms of perception, ornamental tangerines often have a bland taste, lots of fiber or dry segments because the care process focuses on the appearance rather than the quality of food. In addition, plants placed indoors for many days, exposed to incense smoke, dust, air-conditioned environments or lack of natural light can also affect the freshness of the fruit. If you eat a fruit that has been moldy or damaged without being detected in time, users may have digestive problems.
However, not all ornamental tangerines are absolutely unusable. If housewives know the origin of the tree, are grown in a safe direction, limit chemicals and ensure thorough washing under running water, even soaking in diluted salt water before use, they can still use a part. In addition to eating directly, housewives can use it to make tangerine peel jam, make tea or make fragrant essential oils, but it is necessary to remove fruits that show signs of spoilage.
Taking advantage of fruits from ornamental tangerine trees during Tet is not prohibited, but food safety factors need to be carefully considered. If the care process is not clear, it is best to prioritize family health instead of regretting a few tangerines, because the symbolic value of ornamental trees is much more important than the nutritional value of the remaining fruits.
