Preservation

Definition of Food Preservation

Food preservation can be defined as the process of treating and

handling food in such a way as to stop or greatly slow down spoilage
and prevent foodborne illness while maintaining nutritional value,
texture and flavour.
 Underlying Principles of Food
Preservation
• All methods used for preserving foods are based on the general principle of
preventing or retarding the causes of spoilage.
• The growth of microorganisms must be haltered. This can be achieved by
removing some of the conditions necessary for their growth.
The scientific principles below forms the basis of all methods of
preservation.
⮚ Removal of Moisture: This can be done by applying heat and allowing the
water to evaporate. Adding sugar or salt has the same effect. Since the
sugar or salt concentration is more concentrated than the solution inside
the cell, water passes out of the cell through the process of osmosis, and is
replaced by the sugar or salt solution. The cell becomes dehydrated.
 Underlying Principles of Food
Preservation
⮚ Altering the Temperature: Either decreasing or increasing the
temperature can prevent microbial growth.
Refrigeration or Chilling at 32-40⁰F (0-5⁰C): the temperature inside a
refrigerator, may prevent the growth of most microbes. Some are still
able to grow slowly.
Freezing at 0⁰F (-18⁰C) kills most bacteria though their spores survive.
Pasteurization and Sterilization are used to destroy bacterial cells and
spores. The food is held at a high temperature for a specific period of
time. Heating in a sealed container, as in canning, prevents the entry of
more microorganisms.
 Underlying Principles of Food
Preservation
⮚ Altering the pH: The pH of the food may be lowered so that the food
environment becomes too acidic for microorganisms to grow. Pickling
involving the use of vinegar, is the most common method used.
During the manufacture of yoghurt, lactic-acid bacteria ferment
lactose (milk sugar), producing lactic acid. The lactic acid lowers the
pH and prevents the growth of spoilage organisms.
⮚ Exclusion of Oxygen: This prevents only the growth of moulds and
aerobic bacteria. Yeasts and many pathogenic bacteria are anaerobic.
This method can only be successful as a means of preservation if used
in conjunction with another, such as heating, as in canning.
 Underlying Principles of Food
Preservation
⮚ Use of Chemicals: A number of chemicals can be used to halt the growth of
microorganisms. They are:
1. Antibiotics e.g. Penicillin
2. Antioxidants –prevent deterioration of food through atmospheric conditions.
3. Disinfectants
4. Preservatives –retards growth and delay food spoilage, but do not kill all
microorganisms.
⮚ Irradiation: Is one of the most recent methods used to reduce food-borne
pathogens and extend the shelf life of foods. High doses of the rays used kill
spoilage organisms found in fish, raw poultry and poultry products, and dried
spices and can sterilize food so that it can be stored at room temperature. Packages
must be labelled as ‘treated with irradiation’ or ‘treated by radiation’.
 Reasons for Preserving Foods
The main reason for preserving is to prolong the shelf life of food. Today food is
preserved for a variety of other reasons.
1. To make foods available when they are out of season
2. To prevent waste by making use of foods when they are plentiful and cheap
and storing them for later use
3. To make available to other territories foods not naturally found in their
country
4. To make a variety of foods available all year round so as to prevent
nutritional imbalance
5. Convenience, frozen and canned foods are quick and easy to prepare
6. To store it for later use, especially when it plentiful and cheap
 Factors Contributing to Food
Spoilage
Foods are made unsafe to eat by the action of:
✔Micro-organisms (moulds, bacteria, yeast): Micro-organisms or microbes (usually
invisible to the eye) are found on the skin-membranes of food. Moulds are seen as fine
hairy filaments that occur on the surface of mouldy bread or cheese. They need oxygen
to grow. Bacteria are generally the fastest growing of all microbes. Some can grow in the
presence of air (aerobes), some grow without air (anaerobes). They also need varying
temperatures for growth. Yeasts can grow under more trying conditions than bacteria,
but are easily killed by heat. Although many yeasts produce undesirable fermentations
that cause food decay, they also form useful products. Some fermented yeast foods are
vinegar, wine, apple cider, beer and bread.
 Factors Contributing to Food
Spoilage
✔Enzymatic Action: are found in any food that has been living tissue, such
as staples, fruits, vegetables and foods from animals (meat, fish, milk,
eggs). Their presence causes cells to break down, a process called
autolysis, meaning self destruction. Although their action is necessary for
the ripening of certain foods, the continuation of the process after
optimum maturity has been reached results in undesirable change in the
food tissue.
 Factors Contributing to Food
Spoilage

✔Contact with Insects or Rodents: Insects (worms, fruit flies, bugs, weevils)
and mechanical damage can cause physical changes that make the food
inedible or hazardous to eat. The bruises or cuts allow the entry of
microorganisms to the inner tissues.
 Methods of Preservation
❖ Low Temperature: The principle behind refrigeration and freezing for
preservation of food is the lowering of temperature to slow down
microbial growth as well as chemical and biological reactions. Since
water becomes a solid when frozen it is no longer available as a
medium for chemical, microbial and enzymatic processes.
✔Refrigeration: Lowering the temperature prevents micro-organisms
from multiplying and reduces enzyme activity. Low temperatures do
not kill micro-organisms. Growth is slowed down but not stopped, so
food will still spoil.
 Methods of Preservation
✔ Freezing: When a food is frozen, ice crystals are formed in it. Free water is no
longer available for micro-organisms to grow and multiply or for enzyme
reactions to occur. Foods such as fruits and vegetables contain between 75
and 95 percent water and made up of many cells.

✔Types of commercial freezing processes:

1. Plate freezing: food is packed in trays which are inserted between plates
cooled by a cold circulating fluid in a large cabinet.
2. Blast freezing: uses a blast of cold air either in a cabinet or a tunnel.
3. Cryogenic freezing (immersion freezing): food is immersed in very cold
liquid- liquid nitrogen- for almost instantaneous freezing.
 Methods of Preservation
✔Heat Preservation: Pasteurization involves heating food items, e.g.
milk etc. below its boiling point but at a temperature sufficient to kill
pathogenic organisms. This can be by the high temperature short time
(HTST) process, which uses a minimum of 161⁰F for at least 15
seconds. The product is then rapidly cooled to a temperature of
below 50⁰F. the expected keeping qualities are 1-3 days in a cool
place.
 Methods of Preservation
✔ Sterilization: (especially in-bottle sterilization) food, especially milk,
is heated in a sealed container at a high temperature. The batch or
the continuous method can be used. In the batch method crates of
bottles are stacked into a large horizontal autoclave where the steam,
under pressure, raises the temperature to 104-113⁰C for 15-40
minutes. In the continuous method, filled bottles are carried on a
conveyor belt through a pressure steam chamber and emerge after
15-40 minutes at the same temperature above. The bottles are cooled
before being packed.
 Methods of Preservation
✔ Ultra Heat Treatment (UHT): allows products to be exposed to very
high processing temperatures with much shorter holding times, 138-
150⁰C for 2-5 seconds. All bacterial cells are killed, there is less
change in milk colour, flavour and nutritional value.

✔Food preservation by canning and bottling is based on the principle

that food is sealed in a can or bottle and then heated to such a
temperature that all harmful micro-organisms capable of growth
during storage are killed.
 Methods of Preservation
✔ Dehydration: is based on the principle that microbial growth and chemical reaction can occur only
when sufficient water is present. Water activity is a term used to describe the extent to which water is
available in foods. Micro-organisms cannot grow below 0.6, so in order to prevent growth in foods the
water activity must be reduced to 0.6 or below.
Methods of Drying
• Solar drying for grapes, prunes, cocoa, grain and animal feed, fish
• Spray drying as for milk, instant tea and instant coffee
• Tunnel and tray drying for dried vegetables, some fruits, pasta, spices
• Drum drying for food pastes such as tomato paste
• Freeze drying for coffee and pharmaceuticals
• Extrusion drying as in corn curls
• Baking as in crackers
• Deep fat frying for potato chips (water boils out of the food , hot oil replacing hot air as a drying
medium
 Methods of Preservation
✔ Chemical Preservatives: includes salt, sugar, vinegar, antioxidants,
sulphur dioxide, nitrates and nitrites. The addition of salt or sugar to a
food reduces the moisture available to the micro-organisms by
osmosis. These solutions are more concentrated than the cytoplasm
inside the cells of the micro-organisms. Therefore, water passes out of
the cell and the cell becomes dehydrated.
 Methods of Preservation
✔ Removal of Air: oxygen is removed to prevent reactions from
occurring during storage. The process involves putting the production
a flexible film pouch, usually with a layer of foil in the film, pulling a
vacuum and then sealing the pouch.
 General Rules for Jam Making
➔ Choose fruit in season at a reasonable price and in good condition, not
overripe
➔ Cook gently with enough water to prevent burning. Continue cooking until
fruit has pulped and skins are soft
➔ Test for quality of pectin
★ Pectin: Jams set because of a substance called pectin that is present in the
cell walls of most fruit and is released when fruit is boiled with sugar. The
acid in the fruit and the added sugar are both important in the setting
process. The correct amount of sugar will also prevent fermentation or
crystallization of the jam.
Fruits High in Pectin
 Steps in Jam Making
✔ Preparation of Jars: Thoroughly wash in warm soapy water; rinse; bring to a
boil and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and put to drain.

✔ Preparation of Fruit: Remove stalks, leaves and any bruised fruit; then wash
and drain fruits, remove stones from large stoned fruit like mango.

✔Cooking Jam: Put the fruit and water in a pan, using either a special preserving
pan or a large strong saucepan. Simmer gently until quite tender. Remove from
heat and blend carefully in a blender. Strain, measure and place in saucepan.
Add sugar. Return pan to heat and boil rapidly until jam sets on testing. Skim
after jam is cooked. Pour jam into hot sterilized jars and cover with waxed circle-
waxed side down. Cover immediately and allow to cool.
Video Showing How to Make Guava
Jam
 Faults in Jam Making
Jam Fermented
❏ Insufficient boiling
❏ Insufficient sugar used
❏ Bruised or overripe fruit used

Jam has Crystallized

❏ Too much sugar used
❏ Overcooking of jam
❏ Not enough acid present
 Faults in Jam Making
Jam has not set
❏ Not boiled for long enough
❏ Not enough pectin or acid

Jam has mould growing on top

❏ Incorrect storage
❏ incorrectly sealed
❏ Insufficient sugar used
❏ Poor quality fruit used