What is food preservation? »Its Definition and Meaning [2019]

Food Conservation is a set of procedures and resources to prepare and package food products in order to store and consume them a long time later .

The substances that constitute the food is altered with some speed. This alteration is caused by the microbes that use the nutritive elements of their development, which causes its decomposition .The alteration of the food is also due to the action of enzymes, chemical compounds that accelerate the speed of reactions.

The main objective of food preservation is to prevent or delay the damage caused by microbes, and therefore, their harmful effect on food. For this, it is necessary to apply an adequate treatment; Foods subjected to this treatment are called canned food .

The following are the most commonly used conservation techniques:

Freezing: consists of subjecting food to temperatures between 0 ºC and-4ºC, in order to eliminate heat; This method makes it possible to temporarily stop the development of microorganisms and decrease the rate at which enzymes act.• Refrigeration: is characterized in storing food at a temperature of 5 ° C or less; It is used to keep food fresh, and preserve it for some time.• Drying or dehydration: It can be natural or artificial.With this method microorganisms do not develop or enzymes act in dry foods In the natural drying the Sun intervenes, it can be used in fruits (raisins), grains, legumes.Today they can be dried by ovens, tunnels or drying drums.

Salted and smoked: When adding salt to the food, it yields its water, and the bacterial and enzymatic activity is stopped.When the food is subjected to wood smoke (beech, encuna, birch), a series of chemical substances with great sterilizing power and that, in addition, give a typical flavor and aroma to food.• Canning: is to sterilize the food and the container.The containers can be made of glass, tin, aluminum and cardboard.The food before being packaged is cooked and cleaned, in cooking it They use different temperatures and times depending on whether it is meat, fish or fruit.• Pickled: is used in cabbage, cucumber, cauliflower, grains, olives, etc.The edibles are salted and then preserved in vinegar, with or without species.This technique includes curing, including smoking, salting and pickling in brine or vinegar, the first two are used in red meat.• Sugar concentrate: consists of adding sugar To preparations of fruits and/or plants, high concentrations prevent the proliferation of microorganisms with the exception of some fungi, to stop the growth of these, the oxygen is eliminated from the containers covering the surface with paraffin or sealed the containers in a vacuum.> Chemical additives: are non-nutritive substances intentionally added to food in small quantities, to improve the appearance, taste, consistency or preservation properties.The most commonly used for consumption Food boiling are sodium benzoate, acetic acid, sodium citrate, sulfur and sodium nitrite.• Other modern methods: Some radiations, such as X-rays, ultraviolet light, etc., are forms of energy that affect living matter, and seriously affect it, leaving food free of microorganisms, and preserved for long periods.

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