Food Preservation
Preservation
Food preservation is done to ensure that baterial and other toxin growth are greatly minimized. Two strategies are generally adopted to achieve this.
- Ensuring that the food production line has a sterile, clean and safe environment which stops any form of food contamination and does not allow bacterial growth to easily occur.
- Packaging food in different automatic or manual techniques including shrink wrapping, vacuum packing, tray sealing via auto feeding machinery. Food is then subjected to extreme heat to kill off any bateria or immediately frozen to ensure that its biological changes and reactions remain in a stasis.
Generally, food preservation can be implemented via:
- Freezing
- Drying or dehydration
- Adding salt
- Adding sugar
- Adding acid
- Adding a chemical preservative
- or by altering a combination of all of these factors (e.g. bacon and jam)
How each food product gets packaged, and what packaging materials are used depends on the method used to preserve food. With respect to dry food, once sufficient water has been removed from the original product, the food must be kept in packages that do not allow moisture to get back into the food item. Dry foods are susceptible to continuing chemical reactions especially if exposed to light and moisture - the chosen packaging barrier (be it high grade PVC or other forms of flexible plastic) must ensure that these reactions are slowed down so that the product shelf life can be maximized.