Among the products of early food conservation were cheese and butter, raisins, dried fish, pickles from fruits, vegetables and fish, smoked meat, sausage, bacon, wines and beers and grain. Most of the foods remain in edible or acceptable form for short period of time so people since the ancient times have experimented with suitable methods for food preservation depending upon the climatic conditions. However, maintenance or creation of nutritional value, texture and flavour is important in preserving its value as food. Although there are different methods which use favourable Yeast, bacteria, or fungus to add either desired qualities or to preserve food (e.g wine, pickles, cheese, vinegar). bacteria, mould and yeast already present in food and prevents their entry in the container by hermetic sealing, which was called pasteurization.įood preservation: It is defined as "the process of treating and handling food to stop or slow down spoilage process (loss of quality, edible quality or nutritive value) caused or accelerated by micro-organisms". In 1834 Louis Pasteur recommended heat treatment of food at high temperature (below boiling point of water) which kills majority of micro-organisms not all e.g. The sterilization method given by Appert was modified by adding common salt or calcium chloride which raised the temperature of boiling water so reduced the time of sterilization.
The canning of fruits was introduced on commercial scale by William Underwood in 1817 in the United States of America. To honor him canning process is still known as "Appertization". He also published a book on preservation, whose translation in English entitled "The Art of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances for Many Years". Nicholas Appert, a Paris confectioner and distiller in 1810, invented the process of preserving foods in glass containers and won the prize. During this time the French Government announced a reward of 12000 Francs to the inventor who could develop a satisfactory method of preservation so that food could be transported to the fighting forces without any spoilage. faced the difficulty of supplying food to its forces at the front, where food spoilt during transportation of long distances. During the Napoleonic near the French Govt. Comparatively canning is a modern technique which was developed in the end of 18th century. Most of the techniques use heating or cooling as the main objective to preserve food. Many pickling techniques for fruits, vegetables and fish were very popular since time immemorial.Įarlier the preservation of foods was an art utilizing sun light, salt, cold temperature, smoking etc. whose description can be read in the Vedas too. in the working of different types of wines, ciders, vinegar etc. The food preservation also employs the use of natural fermentation, e.g. Some of the foods are preserved by salting as vegetables and fish in the coastal areas. In the cold areas, meat and fish forms the main component of diet, these are preserved utilizing the principle of low temperature preservation. in the dried form is known since time immemorial. The use of sun energy to preserve different cereals, pulses fruits, vegetables, meat etc. The different foods have different qualities for storage and the type of environment where different civilizations developed, helped and made him to understand the utilization of different natural resources. As he progressed towards social and civilized culture, the need for the storage of food became essential. He started gathering and storing the foods and did this when the food was available in plenty for use of store foods in scarcity periods. domestication of animals which was ultimately directed towards gathering and storing foods. When the early man left his arboreal habits and started the farming systems i.e.
Food is one of the basic needs of life others being clothing and shelter.