Introduction to Food Technology

 Communicate the value and benefits of preserving food

 Explain various methods of food preservation including
 Define what is food preservation
1. What have you preserved and how did you do it?

2. When you were growing up, did a family member preserve food/can food?
What is Food Preservation?

Food Preservation is one of the methods to protect food

from unwanted microbial growth. After the food produce,
we store and protect by covering rice and adobo with lids
to keep away flies and other insects. By this, we are
protecting it any infection caused by them. This is a short-
term condition. Food preservation, on the other hand, is
done to preserve food for a longer time.
 HISTORY OF FOOD PRESERVATION

History of food preservation varies.

In frozen climate ancient people froze
seal meat on the ice.
In tropical climates they dried foods in
the sun.
Food Historian believes:

 Pre-historic people preserved

food accidentally through
geography and living
conditions. 
Frozen food in Northern areas
Dried out in hot Meditteranian
cave dwellers stumbled in smoking
Native American tribe- sun cured buffalo
meat
salt rich places used to cure foods
Ancient Mesopotamia-cured and smoked
meat, dried apples, preserved food using
honey
Most of the places developed their own
pickles, mostly through: fermentation or
brine
India was likely the first to make cucumber
pickles over 3,000 years ago.
ancient Egyptians and Babylonians pickled
fish,icluding catfish,salmon and even goose.
North Africa- rolling and picking Grapes
Ancient Chinese- used vinegar brines for
picking proteins, from eggs to variety of
meats, rabbit, venison and goat
America-had icehouses built to store ice and food on ice. Soon the ïcehouse”
became an ïcebox”

1800’s mechanical refrigeration was invented and was quickly to put to use.

Clarence Birdseye discoverd that quick freezing at a very low temperature made
for better tasting meats and vegetables. Áfter some time, he perfected his “quick
freeze”process and revolutionized this method of food preservation.
Fermenting

was not invented but rather discovered. First beer was

discoverd when a few grains of barley were left in the rain.
Opportunistic microorganism fermented the starch-derived
sugars into alcohols. Same thing with, fruits feremented
into wine, cabbage into Kim chi or sauerkraut,and so on
Fermenting

some Antropologists believe that mankind settled down

from Nomadic wanderers to Farmers, tp grow barley to
make beer in roughly 1000 BC.
Fermenting

Beer was nutritious and the alcohol was divine. It was

treated as a gift from the gods.
Fermenting
 was valuable food preservation method. it can
preserve foods and also created more nutritious
foods and was used to create more palatable
foods from less desirable ingredients.
Microorganisms responsible for fermentation
can produce vitamins as they ferment.
Drying
In ancient times the sun and wind would have
naturally dried foods. Evidence shows that Middle
East and oriental cultures actively dried foods as
early as 12,000 B.C. in the hot sun. Later cultures
left more evidence and each would have methods
and materials to reflect their food supplies—fish,
wild game, domestic animals, etc
Freezing
Freezing was an obvious preservation method to the
appropriate climates. Any geographic area that had
freezing temperatures for even part of a year made
use of the temperature to preserve foods. Less than
freezing temperatures were used to prolong storage
times. Cellars, caves and cool streams were put to
good use for that purpose.
Pickling
Pickling is preserving foods in vinegar (or other
acid). Vinegar is produced from starches or sugars
fermented first to alcohol and then the alcohol is
oxidized by certain bacteria to acetic acid. Wines,
beers and ciders are all routinely transformed into
vinegars.
Pickling

Pickling may have originated when food was placed in wine or beer to
preserve it, since both have a low pH. Perhaps the wine or beer went sour and
the taste of the food in it was appealing. Containers had to be made of
stoneware or glass, since the vinegar would dissolve the metal from pots.
Never ones to waste anything our ancestors found uses for everything. The left
over pickling brine found many uses. The Romans made a concentrated fish
pickle sauce called “garum”. It was powerful stuff packing a lot of fish taste in
a few drops.
Pickling

There was a spectacular increase in food preservation in the sixteenth century

owing to the arrival in Europe of new foods. Ketchup was an oriental fish
brine that traveled the spice route to Europe and eventually to America where
someone finally added sugar to it. Spices were added to these pickling sauces
to make clever recipes. Soon chutneys, relishes, piccalillis, mustards, and
ketchups were commonplace. Worcester sauce was an accident from a
forgotten barrel of special relish. It aged for many years in the basement of the
Lea and Perrins Chemist shop.
Curing

The earliest curing was actually dehydration. Early

cultures used salt to help desiccate foods. Salting was
common and even culinary by choosing raw salts
from different sources (rock salt, sea salt, spiced salt,
etc.).
Drying

is the simple process of dehydrating foods until there is not enough

moisture to support microbial activity. Drying removes the water
needed by bacteria, yeasts, and molds need to grow. If adequately
dried and properly stored, dehydrated foods are shelf stable (safe for
storage at room temperature). The drying food preservation method is
easy to do, very safe, and can be used for most types of foods (meats,
fruits, and vegetables).
 Food smoking

is an ancient method of preserving food using wood smoke. It’s believed to

be almost as old as the use of fire itself. When prehistoric people hung the
surplus meat or fish they’d caught after a successful hunting or fishing trip
from the ceiling of their cave to protect it from vermin and contamination,
they would have noticed that the meat exposed to the smoke of the fire
stayed edible for longer. If washed with sea water prior to drying and
smoking, it would have lasted even longer because of the preserving
properties of the salt.
 Canning
is the general term applied to the process of packaging a food in a container and
subjecting it to a thermal process for the purpose of extending its useful life. An
optimal thermal process will destroy pathogenic (disease-causing) bacteria, kill or
control spoilage organisms present, and have minimal impact on the nutritional and
physical qualities of the food. Although we think of canning in terms of steel or
possibly aluminum cans, the principles apply equally well to a variety of food
containers such as glass jars, plastic and foil-laminated pouches, semirigid plastic
trays or bowls, as well as metal cans of any one of several shapes, including
cylindrical, oval, oblong, or rectangular. The concept of aseptic packaging
(sterilizing the food and the container prior to filling and sealing) also follows the
same principles.
 Canning

Canning is a method that sterilizes food by heat in airtight containers to achieve a

commercially sterilized product, which allows food to be stored at room temperature
while maintaining food safety and organoleptic quality for months or even years. There
are two typical forms of canning: in-container sterilization (i.e., retort processing) and
out-of-container sterilization (i.e., aseptic processing). In-container sterilized food heats
packed product in containers such as metal cans or glass jars using a retort process, such
as steam, until the center of the product reaches protocol temperatures for sterilized
product. Accordingly, both the package (i.e., can) and product are sterilized together.
Retort processing can be applied to all types of foods.
Curing

refers to various preservation and flavoring processes, especially of

meat or fish, by the addition of a combination of salt, sugar and either
nitrate or nitrite. Many curing processes also involve smoking. The
etymology of the term is unclear, but it is thought to derive from the
same Latin cura, -ae, from which the other English meanings are also
derived.
Review:

What are the different methods for food

preservation?
What are the values and benefits of preserving
food ?
what did you learn from today’s discussion?
Salamatay...