Nutritionist Tips: How to Store Food So That Nutrients Do Not Disrupt

A number of volunteers pack ready-to-eat rendang meat during a donation for victims of natural disasters (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Many people are used to storing leftovers to be reheated the next day. However, according to nutritionist Dr. Rita Ramayulis, DCN, M.Kes, this habit is not good for health and nutritional quality. He suggests that the storage process is planned from the beginning of cooking, not waiting for food to be left over.

Here are the right strategies for storing food based on the type of cooking:

1. "Half-ripe" method for Rendang

If you plan to cook rendang in large quantities for stock, don't cook it all to dry (black).

How to: Set aside a portion of the dish while it is still in the kalio stage (half-finished rendang that is still thick broth) or curry.

Storage: Freeze the portion of the calcium.

When to Eat: Re-cook the kalio that was frozen until it becomes a mature rendang. That way, the food only undergoes one perfect ripening process just before being consumed.

2. "One Boiling Point" Method for Opor and Vegetables

For stewed dishes such as opor or lodeh vegetables, the key is the duration of exposure to heat.

How to: Immediately set aside the portion that you want to store once the dish reaches one boiling point.

Purpose: So that when it is reheated later, the nutrients in the coconut milk and other ingredients are not damaged due to too long or repeated heating.

Why is Reheating Dangerous?

Dr. Rita explained that although coconut milk contains relatively stable MCT fat, too long high temperature heating (such as in the rendang process) is still risky:

Destroys the nutritional content in food.

Trigger the formation of chemical compounds that are not good for the body.

"Separate the portion of food that will be stored from the beginning of the cooking process. This way is much healthier than storing perfectly cooked food and then reheating it many times," he explained as reported by ANTARA.