What is Food Preservation

The dictionary meaning of the word preserve is to keep safe, retain quality, prevent decomposition or fermentation. Food preservation can be defined as a process by which certain foods like fruits and vegetables are prevented from getting spoilt for a long period of time. The colour, taste and nutritive value of the food is also preserved.

Why Do We Need to Preserve Foods? (Aims/objectives of food preservation)

1. Prevention of spoilage of food and increase their shelf life: as soon as animals have been slaughtered and plant foods have been harvested deterioration begins. This involves 2 main processes: a) Cells break down due to enzymes present in the food: this process is known as autolysis, meaning self destruct. b) The disrupted cell structures are vulnerable to the activities of micro-organisms. Micro-organisms cause changes in odour, flavour, colour and texture of food. For effective food preservation it is necessary to prevent both autolysis and microbial growth. Certain foods like fruits and vegetables are prevented from getting spoilt for a long period of time by preservation methods. The colour, taste and nutritive value of the food is also preserved. Foods are preserved to prolong their shelf life. 2. Preservation of Seasonal & Excess foods: foods are grown in large quantities in different parts of the country/world. Usually all the quantity grown in a region cannot be consumed by the people staying there as there is always an excess. The farmer makes arrangements to transport the excess quantity to regions where either the food is not grown or where that particular variety of food is not available. If he does not do this, the excess produce will rot and go waste. The farmer will then lose money. There is still some quantity which is left after the fresh food is consumed by the people. It is this quantity which has to be preserved for consumption during the months when The food is not available. Preservation of foods is done during the months when food is available in large quantity and therefore at low cost. One of the important reasons for preserving foods is to take care of the excess produce. 3. Makes foods available through all seasons: another reason for preserving foods is that they add variety to our meals. We get tired of eating the same vegetables which are in season. It it nice to eat peas when they are either very expensive in the market or are not available. Eating cauliflower in pulav or cauliflower vegetable during the summer months adds to the interest in meals. In the same way, eating some chutney, papad or pickle along with the meals adds to the variety. Preserving foods when they are in season makes this possible. 4. Reaches areas where the food item is not grown/not available: In some areas of Rajasthan which are desert areas and in Himalayan regions that are covered with snow most of the time, very few foods can be grown. Availability of some preserved foods can add to the variety and nutritive value of meals. For example inclusion of dehydrated peas, green leafy vegetables, canned fruits etc, in the meals is a good idea in such areas. Preserved foods are mostly of immense use in calamity/disaster hit areas and for soldiers in times of war. 5. Makes transportation and storage of foods easier: Preservation of foods usually reduces bulk. This makes their transportation and storage easier since it requires less space. For example, if you dry green leafy vegetables such as mint, methi, corriander, etc, their weight and volume reduces, thus making their storage easy.

Food Processing
Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry. Food processing typically takes clean, harvested crops or butchered animal products and uses these to produce attractive, marketable and often long shelf-life food products. Similar processes are used to produce animal feed. Extreme examples of food processing include the delicate preparation of deadly fugu fish or preparing space food for consumption under zero gravity. Before food is processed it often undergoes a range of procedures such as picking, sorting, washing, packing, and transporting and short term storage. All these procedures, before processing, affect vitamins and other nutrients. Washing, trimming and heat treatments affect nutrient content. Canning, evaporating, drying and freezing alter nutritional values, and the choices of times and temperatures in these operations frequently must be balanced between good bacterial destruction and minimal nutrient loss or destruction. One of the most influential factors in nutrient loss from processing is the processing that occurs at home ie in preparation and cooking. The nutritional value of spinach reduces when it is cooked. When fresh fruits and vegetables are harvested they continue to undergo chemical changes which can cause them to spoil and deteriorate. Food processors take a range of steps to make sure these changes - the ones consumers will see and therefore choose not buy the produce - are reduced. Fresh fruit and vegetables contain chemical compounds called enzymes that cause the loss of color, loss of nutrients, flavor changes, and color changes in frozen fruits and vegetables. The aim of food processors is to inactivate these enzymes to prevent these chemical changes from taking place. Enzymes in vegetables are inactivated by the blanching process. That is, the vegetable is exposed to boiling water or steam for a brief period of time. It must then be rapidly cooled in ice water to stop it from cooking. Because fruits are usually eaten raw, the enzymes in frozen fruit are controlled by using chemical compounds that interfere with deteriorative chemical reactions. The most common control chemical is ascorbic acid (vitamin C) that may be used in its pure form or in commercial mixtures with sugars. Food processing has the following major aims: 1. Extend shelf life 2. Maintain sensory properties 3. Maintain or improve nutritive properties 4. Ensure safety 5. Make more convenient 6. Increase product line(varieties) 7. Bottom line: $$ (economic value) Food Processing can produce: Ready to Eat (RTE) consumer products as well as Not ready to eat food products (require further preparation by the consumer). The perishability of a food can be modified. Can change the form of the product. Apply a preservation (processing) method to make food safe microbiologically, chemically. Improve quality attributesChange the form of the food. Food chemicals are altered by processing and these changes result in changes in the characteristics of the food and consumer acceptance of the product. Due to the lability of some food chemicals, the parameters used in food processing (eg. temp and shear) are limited to achieve minimal changes in the characteristics of the food and to maximize consumer acceptance. Minimal processing results in the least change in the chemicals of food, provide the highest quality and result in foods with a very short shelf-life. As processing is performed to extend shelf-life (drying,canning), there is more chemical change and loss of perceived quality. Today's consumers want food products that are convenient to use and still have all the qualities of a fresh product. Food processing helps to provide products of the highest quality (flavor, color, texture). It makes food into forms that are convenient (ease of use). Preserved foods like processed foods are of immense use in calamity/disaster hit areas and for soldiers in times of war.

Principles of Food Preservation

After learning about the causes of food spoilage, it should not be very difficult to list the principles of food preservation. Remember, a good method of food preservation is one that slows down or prevents altogether the action of the agents of spoilage. Also, during the process of food preservation, the food should not be damaged. In order to achieve this, certain basic methods were applied using the knowledge gained form observation of the effects of natural conditions on different types of foods. For example in earlier days, in very cold weather condition, ice was used to preserved foods. Thus, very low temperature became an efficient method for preventing food spoilage. Let us now list the principles of food preservation. 1. Removal of micro-organisms or inactivating them: This is done by removing air, water (moisture), lowering or increasing temperature, increasing the concentration of salt or sugar or acid in foods. If you want to preserve green leafy vegetables, you have to remove the water from the leave so that micro organisms cannot survive. You do this by drying the green leaves till all the moisture evaporates. 2. Inactivating enzymes: Enzymes found in foods can be inactivated by changing their conditions such as temperature and moisture, when you preserve peas, one of the methods of preservations is to put them for a few minutes in boiling water. This method inactivates enzymes and thus, in preserving the food. 3. Removal of insects, worms and rats: By storing foods in dry, air tight containers the insects, worms or rats are prevented from destroying it.

Why Does Food Get Spoilt

The definition of food preservation states that preservation is keeping food in such a state that they do not get spoilt for a long period. When we keep bread outside the refrigerator for few days, a spongy growth is seen on it, which may be white, green on black in colour. The bread thus gets spoilt due to growth of mold and becomes unfit for consumption. Likewise, if cooked dal or vegetables is left outside for sometime, it develops a bad smell and bubbles due to fermentation. The dal and vegetables are thus spoilt and cannot be eaten. Food is said to be spoilt if there is rotting i.e., bad smell, fermentation ie, bubbles/ gas in the food or mold ie, spongy growth on the food stuff. Formation of soft spots or soft brown spots on fruits and vegetables is also food spoilage. If we know the reasons of food spoilage, we can remove these conditions while preserving food items. Foods get spoilt mainly due to the presence of micro organisms, enzymes (present in foods), insects, worms, and rats.

Factors responsible for spoilage of foods:

1. Presence of micro-organisms: Micro means small. Micro organisms are very small organisms which cannot be easily seen. Micro-organisms spoil food items when the condition for their growth are appropriate. What are these appropriate conditions? Like all living beings micro-organisms require air, moisture, right temperature and food to grow and multiply. The situations which provide appropriate conditions for growth of micro-organisms, can be listed as. Food having high moisture content Air around the food containing micro organisms Foods kept for a long time at room temperature Skin of fruits and vegetables getting damaged, thus exposing the food to micro organisms. Foods with low salt, sugar or acid content. Resulting in spoilage of foods

If you want to prevent spoilage of foods by micro organisms, you must remove the conditions mentioned above. 2. Presence of enzymes: Enzymes are chemical susbtances found in all plants and animals. Are enzymes harmful to foods? No, enzymes help in ripening of fruits and vegetables. A raw green mango after a few days becomes sweet in taste and yellow in colour due to the enzymes action. What will happen if you keep this

Processes that are aimed at prevention of growth include:

Heat preservation Cold preservation Dehydration Chemical preservation Food Irradiation Microwave heating Filtration Fermentation Food quality is the quality characteristics of food that is acceptable to consumers. This includes external factors as appearance (size, shape, colour, gloss, and consistency), texture, and flavour; factors such as federal grade standards (e.g. of eggs) and internal (chemical, physical, microbial). Food quality in the United States is enforced by the Food Safety Act 1990. Food quality is an important food manufacturing requirement, because food consumers are susceptible to any form of contamination that may occur during the manufacturing process. Many consumers also rely on manufacturing and processing standards, particularly to know what ingredients are present, due to dietary, nutritional requirements (kosher, halal, vegetarian), or medical conditions (e.g., diabetes, or allergies). Besides ingredient quality, there are also sanitation requirements. It is important to ensure that the food processing environment is as clean as possible in order to produce the safest possible food for the consumer. A recent example of poor sanitation recently has been the 2006 North American E. coli outbreak involving spinach. Food quality also deals with product traceability, e.g. of ingredient and packaging suppliers, should a recall of the product be required. It also deals with labeling issues to ensure there is correct ingredient and nutritional information. Quality of a food product involves maintenance (or improvement) of the key attributes of the product -including color, flavor and texture. To maintain quality it is important to control: Microbiological spoilage Enzymatic degradation Chemical degradation

Food spoilage: Microbial Growth and Food Spoilage:

Food spoilage results from growth of microbes in food and it alters food visibly and in other ways, rendering it unsuitable for consumption. Involves predictable succession of microbes Different foods undergo different types of spoilage processes. Toxins are sometimes produced. Algal toxins may contaminate shellfish and finfish. Approximately 1/3rd of all food manufactured in world is lost to spoilage Methods to estimate Microbial content of foods (microbial load)/Spoilage can be: (which bugs) and quantitative (how many bugs) Based on the Shelf life foods can be classified as: Non-perishable foods (pasta)

qualitative

Semi-perishable foods (bread) Perishable foods (eggs)

Conditions for spoilage: Extrinsic Factors:

Water pH Physical structure Oxygen Temperature

Intrinsic Factors:
Composition pH Presence and availability of water Oxidation-reduction potential altered by cooking Physical structure Presence of antimicrobial substances

Composition and pH:

Putrefaction: proteolysis and anaerobic breakdown of proteins, yielding foul smelling amine compounds. pH impacts make up of microbial community and therefore types of chemical reactions that occur when microbes grow in food. Water availability: In general, lower water activity inhibits microbial growth water activity lowered by: drying addition of salt or sugar osmophilic microorganisms: prefer high osmotic pressure xerophilic microorganisms: prefer low water activity Physical structure: grinding and mixing increase surface area and distribute microbes and promotes microbial growth. outer skin of vegetables and fruits slows microbial growth

Antimicrobial substances: Ex: coumarins fruits and vegetables lysozyme cows milk and eggs aldehydic and phenolic compounds herbs and spices allicin garlic polyphenols green and black teas

Extrinsic Factors:
Temperature: lower temperatures retard microbial growth Relative humidity: higher levels promote microbial growth Atmosphere: oxygen promotes growth. Modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) use of shrink wrap and vacuum technologies to package food in controlled atmospheres

Examples of some types of contaminations: Meat

Cutting board contamination Conveyor belts Temperature Failure to distribute quickly Fecal bacteria from intestines

Fish
Polluted waters Transportation boxes Poultry and Eggs Human contact Penetration by bacteria Milk and Dairy Products Lactobacillus and Streptococcus species that survive pasturization (sour milk) Breads Spores and fungi that survive baking Grains Fungi produce toxins

Food-Borne Diseases Two primary types food-borne infections food intoxications

Food infections (microbes are transferred to consumer) Food poisoning (results from the toxin consumption) Food infections: ingestion foods in which pathogenic microbes are present Ex. of Food-borne infections: a) Salmonellosis caused by Salmonella typhimurium & S. enteritidis commonly present in meats, poultry foods. b) Escherichia coli diarrhea/colitis by Escherichia coli in uncooked raw milk and ground beef Food poisoning: ingestion of toxins in foods in which microbes have grown Ex. of Food poisoning: a) Ergotism : Ergot toxin produced by Claviceps purpurea b) Aflatoxins: Aflatoxin produced by Aspergillus flavus

General Principles to minimize contamination/spoilage:

Good management processes Acceptable sanitary practices Rapid movement of food through processing plant Well-tested preservation procedures ********