Food Spoilage And Its Preservations

Introduction : Food spoilage is any undesirable change in appearance , smell and taste of food that makes it unacceptable to consume.

Spoiled food is not necessarily unsafe to eat but it is generally regarded as unpotable and will not be purchased or consumed. Food spoilage renders economic loss to producers, distributors and consumers in the form of reduced quality and quantity as well as high prices.

    

Since food are organic material , they provide nutrients for the growth of a wide variety of heterotrophic micro organism .

The physical and chemical characteristics of food determine its degree of susceptibility to microbial activity.

Causes of Food Spoilage :  

• Condition of Raw products
• Micro organisms : Bacteria, Fungi, Protozoans
• Enzymatic Activities
• Rough Handling 

Food Preservations

Food is very valuable . Preserving food can help to avoid wasting of food. Food Preservation is the process in which food is stored by special methods. Cooked or uncooked food can be preserved in different ways to be used later. Some methods of food preservation are:

• Freezing
• Boiling 
• Salting
• Sweetening
• Dehydration 
• Canning

Freezing:

              Food stored in a refrigerator remains fresh for some days. Bacteria do not grow easily in cool places . We can preserve some food items like milk, Fruits , Vegetables and cooked food by keeping them in refrigerator.

Boiling: 

                 By this method, we can preserve food for a short period of time. Bacteria in milk are killed by pasteurization  i.e the process in which milk boiled for sometimes and then cooling it quickly .

Salting:

             We can add salts in some food items like fish and pickles. 

Sweetening: 

                Excess amount of sugar in food also act as preservative. We store food for long time in the form of gems and murabbas by adding sugar in them.

Dehydration:

                        In this method some food items dried in the sun to avoid them from growing bacteria . Some food items likes raw mangoes , fishes , potato chips etc. are preserved by this method.

Canning: 

                                   In this method air is removed from food and put in airtight Cans so bacteria do not grow in them.

Conclusion : At the last we can concluded that food is valuable and must be preservative . To ensure safety of food products , quality control, assurance through routine microbiological examination of food products for pathogens and food organisms , confirmation of proper pasteurization  and checking of leakages in cans are required.