Preserving Food Quality: Practical Tips for Keeping Food Fresh Longer
Have you ever wondered how food can last a long time or period in shipment without going bad? Some people would think “doesn’t this expire”. Chemists have experimented with many chemical methods along a period of time to keep food preserved during shipment. In the essay about food preservation will be discussed several ways how people are trying to keep food fresh.
There are many methods, but these methods don’t require specific chemicals. The steps for the chemical method is lengthy because of all the steps required to keep the food fresh, all the steps taken for the procedure are well worth it in the end. Spoilage of food depends on what kind of storing the food is in. For example, if the food is frozen, it lasts longer. Rather than the food being at regular temperature and it’s chances of spoilage increases. The shipment of food is often very expensive. Food is shipped because that specific type of food isn’t found anywhere near them.
Another word for keeping the food from spoiling is food preservation. “Food preservation can be defined as the science that deals with the process of prevention of decay or spoilage of food thus, allowing it to be stored in a fit condition for future use.” Food preservation is a big factor that helps with the spoilage of food not occuring. It helps with the prevention of bacteria, fungi, and microorganisms not growing on the food. Although there are various other methods to keep food from spoiling, food preservation is the most convenient method.
Every food has a certain amount of time before it’s expiration date. The expiration date is a date that shows when a food will expire or when a food is best. It’s suggested to not eat the food if it’s over the expiration date. The expired food has harmful bacteria to our bodies that can make people sick. The signs of someone being sick are vomiting, diarrhea, or a fever. Often times this is known as food poisoning. A person gets food poisoning when they digest food that is contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites, or toxins. The symptoms can range symptoms such as stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting. Although it is rare, food poisoning can often times result in death if it’s not treated with the correct type of treatment.
The main concern when food is being shipped is whether or not the food will last during the journey. Buyers wouldn’t be thrilled to discover a package with spoiled food inside. This would defeat the purpose of shipping food to other locations around the world. Food shipment is useful to people around the world. In other areas around the world large plain of land are not accessible, therefore crops cannot be grown leaving them deprived of fruits and vegetables. In other words, they lack a specific type of food and have no way of getting access to the crop; cooks, families, schools, and companies. The three common methods for food shipment are drying and smoking, cooling and freezing, salting and pickling. Although these methods work for various types of food, they don’t necessarily work for all different types of food.
The procedure of drying and smoking is to help runoff the moisture from the food. When the moisture is taken off it reduces the chances of bacterial and fungal growth. There are many different types of ways to dry the food. “Foods can be dried in an electric dehydrator, in the sun, in a solar dryer, or in a regular oven.” The smoking portion of this procedure also gives the food more flavor. As mentioned before this method doesn't work with all types of food. The drying and smoking method is used for meat, fruits, or vegetables. The ways in which that smoking foods helps preserve the foods are that the smoke heat kills microbes and the area dries up so the bacteria has nowhere to grow.
The cooling and freezing method is another method that is used to preserve food. The cooling and freezing method helps extend the shelf life of vegetables and fruits. This means that it allows food to last longer than the suggested time period. The process is lowering products temperature to -18 C or lower. This process is designed for special food commodities and it helps shape the frozen food market. The freezing and cooling method has been around for a long it grew after the development of scientific methods for blanching and processing in the 1980s. The process of freezing and cooling is different for vegetables and fruits. The fruit process is started of with sorting and grading, removal of low quality water washing. It is ended with adding sugar then packaging, freezing, and then storage then the fruit is ready for sale. The vegetable process starts with sorting, removal of low quality produce, washing, peeling, cutting. It ended off with blanching with hot water, packaging, freezing, and then it is finally ready for sale.
Salting and pickling is another method for preserving food that has been around for quite some time now. Salting is used more for meat, it helps the meat last for years. If the salting method is used in a cold environment, it is more likely to last more time with being spoiled. The salt helps take out the moisture from the food and it helps create a difficult environment to live in for the bacteria. Pickling is a method used for meats, fruits, and vegetables. Although it is mainly used to make pickles out of cucumbers. “To make pickles, cucumbers are soaked in a 10-percent salt water brine for several days, then rinsed and stored in vinegar to preserve them for years.” This proves how cucumbers are turned into pickles using the pickling method.
To conclude food preservation essay, many living things in the world interfere with the making of chemicals. Fortunately, scientists have discovered a way for harmless chemicals to reduce the expiration from foods. Every food is made up of harmless chemical substances. The three common types of food preservation for shipment are drying and smoking, cooling and freezing, salting and pickling. Overall, food shipment is used so that the food won’t spoil as it’s being shipped.
