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Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food in a way that preserves its value as food. The main effort is to stop or greatly slow down spoilage to prevent foodborne illness (e.g. salting, cooling, cooking); but some methods preserve food with specific controlled spoilage (e.g. cheese, wine). While maintaining or creating nutritional value, texture and flavour is important in preserving its value as food; this is a culturally dependent determinant as what qualifies as food fit for humans in one culture may not qualify in another culture.

Preservation usually involves preventing the growth of bacteria, fungi and other micro-organisms, as well as retarding the oxidation of fats which cause rancidity. It also includes processes to inhibit natural ageing and discolouration that can occur during food preparation such as the enzymatic browning reaction in apples which causes browning when apples are cut. Some preservation methods require the food to be sealed after treatment to prevent re-contamination with microbes; others, such as drying, allow food to be stored without any special containment for long periods.

Common methods of applying these processes include drying, spray drying, freeze drying, freezing,vacuum-packing, canning, preserving in syrup, sugar crystallisation, food irradiation, adding preservatives or inert gases such as carbon dioxide. Other methods that not only help to preserve food, but also add flavour, include pickling, salting, smoking, preserving in syrup or alcohol, sugar crystallisation and curing.

Preservation processes

Preservation processes include:

• Heating to kill or denature organisms (e.g. boiling)
• Oxidation (e.g use of sulphur dioxide)
• Toxic inhibition (e.g. smoking, use of carbon dioxide, vinegar, alcohol etc)
• Dehydration (drying)
• Osmotic inhibition ( e.g use of syrups)
• Low temperature inactivation (e.g. freezing)
• Ultra high water pressure (e.g. fresherized, a kind of “cold” pasteurization, the pressure kills naturally occurring pathogens, which cause food deterioration and affect food safety.)
• Many combinations of these methods
• Chelation

Drying

One of the oldest methods of food preservation is by drying, which reduces water activity sufficiently to delay or prevent bacterial growth. Most types of meat can be dried. This is especially valuable in the case of pork, since it is difficult to keep without preservation. Many fruits can also be dried; for example, the process is often applied to apples, pears, bananas, mangoes, papaya, apricot, and coconut. Zante currants, sultanas and raisins are all forms of dried grapes. Drying is also the normal means of preservation for cereal grains such as wheat, maize, oats, barley, rice, millet and rye.

Smoking

Meat, fish and some other foods may be both preserved and flavoured through the use of smoke, typically in a smoke-house. The combination of heat to dry the food without cooking it, and the addition of the aromatic hydrocarbons from the smoke preserves the food.

Freezing

Freezing is also one of the most commonly used processes commercially and domestically for preserving a very wide range of food stuffs including prepared food stuffs which would not have required freezing in their unprepared state. For example, potato waffles are stored in the freezer, but potatoes themselves require only a cool dark place to ensure many months' storage. Cold stores provide large volume, long-term storage for strategic food stocks held in case of national emergency in many countries.

Vacuum packing

Vacuum-packing stores food in a vacuum environment, usually in an air-tight bag or bottle. The vacuum environment strips bacteria of oxygen needed for survival, hence preventing the food from spoiling. Vacuum-packing is commonly used for storing nuts.

Salt

Salting or curing draws moisture from the meat through a process of osmosis. Meat is cured with salt or sugar, or a combination of the two. Nitrates and nitrites are also often used to cure meat.

Sugar

Sugar is used to preserve fruits, either in syrup with fruit such as apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums or in crystallized form where the preserved material is cooked in sugar to the point of crystallisation and the resultant product is then stored dry. This method is used for the skins of citrus fruit (candied peel), angelica and ginger. A modification of this process produces glacé fruit such as glacé cherries where the fruit is preserved in sugar but is then extracted from the syrup and sold, the preservation being maintained by the sugar content of the fruit and the superficial coating of syrup. The use of sugar is often combined with alcohol for preservation of luxury products such as fruit in brandy or other spirits. These should not be confused with fruit flavored spirits such as Cherry Brandy or Sloe gin.

Jellying

Food may be preserved by cooking in a material that solidifies to form a gel. Such materials include gelatine, agar, maize flour and arrowroot flour. Some foods naturally form a protein gel when cooked such as eels and elvers, and sipunculid worms which are a delicacy in the town of Xiamen in Fujian province of the People's Republic of China. Jellied eels are a delicacy in the East End of London where they are eaten with mashed potatoes. Potted meats in aspic, (a gel made from gelatine and clarified meat broth) were a common way of serving meat off-cuts in the UK until the 1950s

Jugging

Meat can be preserved by jugging, the process of stewing the meat (commonly game or fish) in a covered earthenware jug or casserole. The animal to be jugged is usually cut into pieces, placed into a tightly-sealed jug with brine or gravy, and stewed. Red wine and/or the animal's own blood is sometimes added to the cooking liquid. Jugging was a popular method of preserving meat up until the middle of the 20th century.

Irradiation

Irradiation of food is the exposure of food to ionizing radiation; either high-energy electrons or X-rays from accelerators, or by gamma rays (emitted from radioactive sources as Cobalt-60 or Caesium-137). The treatment has a range of effects, including killing bacteria, molds and insect pests, reducing the ripening and spoiling of fruits, and at higher doses inducing sterility. The technology may be compared to pasteurization; it is sometimes called 'cold pasteurization', as the product is not heated. Irradiation is not effective against viruses or prions, it cannot eliminate toxins already formed by microorganisms, and is only useful for food of high initial quality.

The radiation process is unrelated to nuclear energy, but it may use the radiation emitted from radioactive nuclides produced in nuclear reactors. Ionizing radiation is hazardous to life; for this reason irradiation facilities have a heavily shielded irradiation room where the process takes place. Radiation safety procedures ensure that neither the workers in such facility nor the environment receive any radiation dose from the facility. Irradiated food does not become radioactive, and national and international expert bodies have declared food irradiation as wholesome. However, the wholesomeness of consuming such food is disputed by opponents and consumer organizations. National and international expert bodies have declared food irradiation as 'wholesome'; UN-organizations as WHO and FAO are endorsing to utilize food irradiation. International legislature on whether food may be irradiated or not varies worldwide from no regulation to full banning.

It is estimated that about 500,000 tons of food items are irradiated per year world-wide in over 40 countries. These are mainly spices and condiments with an increasing segment of fresh fruit irradiated for fruit fly quarantine.

Modified atmosphere

Modified atmosphere is a way to preserve food by operating on the atmosphere around it. Salad crops which are notoriously difficult to preserve are now being packaged in sealed bags with an atmosphere modified to reduce the oxygen (O₂) concentration and increase the carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration. There is concern that although salad vegetables retain their appearance and texture in such conditions, this method of preservation may not retain nutrients, especially vitamins.

Grains may be preserved using carbon dioxide. A block of dry ice is placed in the bottom and the can is filled with grain. The can is then "burped" of excess gas. The carbon dioxide from the sublimation of the dry ice prevents insects, mold, and oxidation from damaging the grain. Grain stored in this way can remain edible for five years.

Nitrogen gas (N₂) at concentrations of 98% or higher is also used effectively to kill insects in grain through hypoxia. However, carbon dioxide has an advantage in this respect as it kills organisms through both hypoxia and hypercarbia, requiring concentrations of only 80%, or so. This makes carbon dioxide preferable for fumigation in situations where an hermetic seal cannot be maintained.

Burial in the ground

Burial of food can preserve it due to a variety of factors: lack of light, lack of oxygen, cool temperatures, pH level, or desiccants in the soil.

Many root vegetables are very resistant to spoilage and require no other preservation other than storage in cool dark conditions, for example by burial in the ground, such as in a storage clamp.

Century eggs are created by placing eggs in alkaline mud (or other alkaline substance) resulting in their "inorganic" fermentation through raised pH instead of spoiling. The fermentation preserves them and breaks down some of the complex, less flavorful proteins and fats into simpler more flavorful ones.

Most foods can be preserved in soil that is very dry and salty (thus a desiccant), or soil that is frozen.

Cabbage was traditionally buried in the fall in northern farms in nthe USA for preservation. Some methods keep it crispy while other methods produce sauerkraut

Sometimes meat is buried under conditions which cause preservation. If buried on hot coals or ashes, the heat can kill pathogens, the dry ash can desiccate, and the earth can block oxygen and further contamination. If buried where the earth is very cold, the earth acts like a refrigerator. Fish (e.g. Gravlax) has been buried to preserve by fermentation.

Controlled use of micro-organism

Some foods, such as many cheeses, wines, and beers will keep for a long time because their production uses specific micro-organisms that combat spoilage from other less benign organisms. These micro-organisms keep pathogens in check by creating an environment toxic for themselves and other micro-organisms by producing acid or alcohol. Starter micro-organisms, salt, hops, controlled (usually cool) temperatures, controlled (usually low) levels of oxygen and/or other methods are used to create the specific controlled conditions that will support the desirable organisms that produce food fit for human consumption.

High pressure food preservation

High pressure food preservation refers to high pressure used for food preservation. "Pressed inside a vessel exerting 70,000 pounds per square inch or more, food can be processed so that it retains its fresh appearance, flavour, texture and nutrients while disabling harmful microorganisms and slowing spoilage." By 2001, adequate commercial equipment was developed so that by 2005 the process was being used for products ranging from orange juice to guacamole to deli meats and widely sold.

See also

• Food manufacturing
• Food engineering
• Chutney
• Food processing
• Jam
• Marmalade
• Pickling
• Shelf life
• Fresherized
• Gourmet Library and museum

Notes

1. anon., Food Irradation - A technique for preserving and improving the safety of food, WHO, Geneva, 1991
2. http://www.consumersinternational.org/homepage.asp
3. http://nucleus.iaea.org/NUCLEUS/nucleus/Content/Applications/FICdb/FoodIrradiationClearances.jsp?module=cif
4. http://www.mindfully.org/Food/Irradiation-Position-ADA.htm
5. C.M. Deeley, M. Gao, R. Hunter, D.A.E. Ehlermann, The development of food irradiation in the Asia Pacific, the Americas and Europe; tutorial presented to the International Meeting on Radiation Processing, Kuala Lumpur, 2006. http://www.doubleia.org/index.php?sectionid=43&parentid=13&contentid=494
6. ^ military.com article KILLING PATHOGENS: High-Pressure Processing Keeps Food Safe copyright 2005

References

• Riddervold, Astri. Food Conservation. ISBN 9780907325406.
• Bentley, Amy. Eating for Victory: Food Rationing and the Politics of Domesticity. ISBN 9780252067273.
• Shephard, Sue. Pickled, Potted, and Canned: How the Art and Science of Food Preserving Changed the World. ISBN 9780743255530.

External links

• AForkintheTrail.com ~ a book about dehydrating/drying foods
• WildernessCooking.com ~ an online course about food preservation for wilderness trips
• National Center for Home Food Preservation
• BBC News Online - US army food... just add urine

• Food preservation