Science behind the food preserving

Food preservation is a process to prevent food from spoilage and save it for future use. Food preserving plays an important role in people’s business as they earn more by reducing food spoilage and decay.

Chemically synthesized preservatives with the development of science and technology becomes important in the food industry. However, according to the study, it is found that the abuse of chemical synthetic preservatives to increase the shelf life of food, not only affect the original taste but also cause food poisoning and induced risk of cancer.

While from many years people use traditional food preservation methods which are usually dry, smoked, cellar storage, pickled, wine stains and so on.

Dehydration: the concept behind the process of dehydration is simple; it removes moisture from food and reduces bacterial growth. The dried fruits and vegetables loss their 80 to 90% of moisture. So that the dried fruits are much easier to eat as they are smaller and lighter. But should take in small quantity, as some dried food has high fibre or sugar that cause diarrhoea, bloating, cramping, constipation and tooth decay.

Freezing food: it is an easy and quick method of food preserving. This method slows the growth of bacteria or microorganisms but not eliminate them.

Fermentation: this method of food preserving is done in warm environment using salt, sugar or grains to produce brine and organic acids are exploited to preserve food and adds flavour after fermentation is done.

Pickling: it is a process of preserving food by soaking in a high concentration of salt or acid for months to kill bacteria, and mostly the food is stored into the glass jars and jars are treated with heat before storage food, to kill remaining bacteria.

Author: Iqra Ambreen