Food Preservation

1. Food Preservation By: Taran Kanabar

2. We preserve food so that we can keep food nutritious and edible over long periods of time. By preserving food we either kill the bacteria altogether (cooking it is a common way) or we simply slow down the the speed of the bacteria reproducing. The Basic Idea Behind Food Preservation

3. Cans are sealed container which contain boiled food. Boiling the food makes sterilizes the food but also affects the flavour and nutritious content. The can is also sealed, preventing bacteria from entering. This means that a can can keep food from being spoiled for a very long time. Glass jars and most sealed containers are just a slightly different form of canning. Canning

4. Refrigeration is a very common way to preserve food as it is very easy. Refrigerating food will slow down bacterial activity so that, depending on what food it is it will last a week or two longer. Freezing food however will altogether stop bacteria from reproducing. Freezing will have the most noticeable change on fruits. Refrigeration and Freezing

5. Salting is just covering meat with salt. This removes the moisture in the meat so that bacteria cannot grow there. This will result in the meat lasting for years but the meat will not be very healthy. Pickling also uses salt except it is mixed with water. The food is only with the salt water for a few days when it is transferred to a container (usually a jar) full of vinegar where it is preserved. Salting & Pickling

6. Making cheese preserves milk and makes it taste very good as well. Cheese making is quite complicated and I will not go into specifics. Cheese can have many different tastes depending on how long it is made. Cheese will last for years and will get a stronger taste the longer it is left. Creating cheese is not so much a way of preserving milk as it is creating a food out of milk that can be preserved for many years. Cheese Making

7. Chemical preservatives are used in many foods to help artificially preserve them. There are three main categories used in food: benzoates, nitrites and sulphites. These chemicals will either slow down bacterial activity or bring it to a halt altogether. However chemical preservatives are not as healthy as organic foods. Chemical Preservatives

8. Salting meat is probably the oldest known way of preserving food. Ancient Egypt was the first known place they salted meat. During medieval times, salting meat became very popular especially on long journeys on water and on land. However, good quality salt was quite expensive so many people used lower quality salt which didn’t always preserve as well. The History of Food Preservation

9. Another method of food preservation that was used in medieval times was drying fish. This worked best for fish like cod which do not have a lot of oil. Drying fish is basically just leaving them in cool air for a while. The History of Food Preservation

10. In 1809 a French man named Nicolas Appert created the basic principle for jarred foods. By doing this he created an easy way to feed the vast French military. Napoleon gave Nicolas 12,000 francs for his invention. His jars inspired modern jars and cans which are one of the most common ways of preserving foods today. History of Food Preservation

11. In 1860 when cans and dark green jars were already quite popular. However Henry Heinz saw a gap in the industry. He thought that it would save a lot of time for people cooking at home to buy pre-dried and pre-cooked horseradish. When he started selling these jars of ready cut radish he made the glass jars completely transparent so that customers knew precisely what they were buying. History of Food Preservation

12. Food Preservation By: Taran Kanabar