Food Preservation

1. Food preservation involves treating food so that it can be stored without spoiling for a long time. 2. Food preservation prevents or slows down the growth of microbes on food. This is done by killing the microbes in the food or making the condition unsuitable for their growth and survival. 3. There are various ways to preserve food.

Boiling Cooling Drying Freezing

Waxing

Smoking

Ways to Preserve Food

Pickling Pasteurising

Vacuum Packing

Salting

Bottling/Canning

Method of Food Preservation A. Drying

1. In drying, moisture or water is removed from food. Without water, microbes cannot survive. This slows down food from becoming bad. 2. Food can be dried in the following ways. a) Drying under the sun. b) Cooking under high temperature. c) Exposing food to hot air.

Dried Prawn

Dried Squid

B. Boiling
1. Boiling makes food more tender. The high temperature during the boiling can kill many microbes that cause the food to go bad. 2. It is a common way to preserving food at home. Rice, porridges, soups and various dishes are prepared in this way.

Porridge

Rice

C. Cooling
1. Cooling involves keeping foot at low temperatures, usually in a refrigerator. 2. Almost all kinds of food can be preserved by cooling. This includes eggs, vegetable, fruits, milk and cooked food. 3. Cooling slows down the growth of microorganisms in food: the lower the temperature of the food, the slower is the growth of microorganisms. 4. However, cooling does not kill microorganisms. (a) So, food should not be kept in a refrigerator for too long. It will turn bad after a long period of time. (b) As soon as the food is taken out of a refrigerator, the microorganisms become active again. So, it is important that the food is eaten or cooked as soon as possible.

= Fruits

= Milk

Importance of Food Preservation

1. Food preservation began a long time ago since prehistoric times. Early man, for example, preserved food by drying them under the sun. Today, various methods have been invented to preserve food. 2. Food preservation plays an important role in our life. a) Food preservation enables us to keep food for a longer time. Otherwise, agricultural products such as vegetables, fruits, meat and fish will go bad before they reach consumers. b) Food preservation makes it easy to store food, making our life more convenient. For example, milk for babies can be stored as milk powder. This makes it easy for mothers to feed their babies anytime and anywhere. c) Food preservation also reduces wastage of food. For examples, leftover dishes can be kept in the refrigerator for the next meal. Without proper food preservation methods, fresh fruits and vegetables would have to be consumed as soon as they harvested. Otherwise, they will go bad after a few days and have to be thrown away. d) Food preservation makes it easy to transport food. As food can be kept longer now, food from one part of the world can be transported to other parts of the world. For example, Malaysia does not produce enough rice for our own consumption. So, we transport rice from other countries like Thailand, into our country.

D. Freezing
1. Freezing involves keeping food frozen in a freezer.

2. Food are kept at very low temperature in freezer. So, freezing allows food to be kept longer than cooling. 3. Similar to cooling, freezing does not kill microorganisms. It only slows down the growth of microorganisms much more efficiently than cooling. So, frozen food should be cooked or eaten immediately after it thaws. 4. Advantages of freezing: (a) It maintains the freshness, taste and flavour of the food (b) It maintains most nutrients in the food. 5. Freezing is an excellent way to storing meat, fish, green peas, cooked food as instant pizzas and others.

E. Vacuum-Packing
1. In this method, food is stored in vacuum containers, which are containers without air. This is done by pumping out all the air in the containers before sealing them. 2. Without air, microorganisms cannot live and grow. So, food is prevented from turning bad. 3. Vacuum-packing is commonly used to store fresh food such as vegetables, fruits, meats and dry foodstuffs such as nuts and cereals. 4. Advantages of the method are:

(a) Food packed in this way maintains its freshness over a long period of time. Vacuum-packing also delays the ripening of fruits. So, it is possible to export fruits overseas. (b) Vacuum-packing is safe as it does not use any chemicals.

F. Salting
1. Salting involves adding a lot of salt to food.

2. Salted food can last longer because bacteria and fungi cannot survive in a highly salty condition. 3. Examples of salted food are salted fish, salted eggs, salted radish and belacan. 4. Salting changes the colour and taste of food. Some nutrients are lost during salting. 5. The following figure shows how salted fish is produced.

Method of salting Fish is cut and cleaned.

The fish is rubbed with a lot of salt.

The fish is dried under the sun.

J. Smoking
1. Smoking involves exposing food to smoke from a low wood fire.

2. The low heat from the fire dries the food very slowly. The smoke gives the food a special colour and flavour. 3. Examples of food produced in this way include smoked bananas and smoked fish.

= Banana

= Fish

G. Pickling
1. Pickling is a process of preserving food in vinegar or water containing a lot of salt or sugar. 2. The food preserved in this way is called pickle.

3. Bacteria and fungi cannot survive in acidic, highly salty or highly sweet condition. So, pickle can be kept for a long time. 4. Many types of food can be pickled. These included fruits like papayas, mangoes and guavas. 5. Pickling changes the colour and taste of food. Some of the nutrients in the food are lost.

= Mango

= Papaya

K. Waxing
1. Many fruits and vegetables have natural waxy coating. Before the fruits and vegetables are packed, they are repeatedly washed to clean off dirt and soil. Most often, this removes the natural waxy coating too. 2. A very thin layer of wax is applied on some fruits and vegetables to replace the natural ones that are lost. 3. Waxing helps fruits and vegetables to retain their moisture and gives them a shiny appearance. The wax also prevents the growth of fungi and protects the fruits from being easily bruised. 4. The waxes are safe to eat as they usually come from natural sources such as plants and beeswax.

= Apples

H. Pasteurizing
1. Pasteurizing is one way to preserve liquid especially milk. It is name after Louis Pasteur, the French scientist who invented this method. 2. In this process, milk is heated to a temperature between

55C and 70C for a short period of time. Then, the milk is quickly cooled and packed. 3. Pasteurizing destroys harmful bacteria. As it does not use high heat, it maintains the flavour and nutrients in it. 4. However, it cannot kill all the microorganisms. So, pasteurized milk can be stored in a refrigerator only a few days or weeks. 5. Wines and certain juice are also preserved in this way.

I. Bottling/Canning
1. Bottling and canning can be used to preserve a wide variety of food including soups, sauces, jams, meats fish, fruits vegetables and dairy products. 2. Basically, bottling and canning involve y Sterilizing, whereby food is heated to a high temperature to kill bacteria and fungi. y Storing food in air-tight containers 3. Bottling or canning is the most popular way to preserve food because y It is cheap. y The food is partially or fully cooked and ready to be eaten. y The food can be kept without refrigeration for a long time (sometimes for a few years). 4. However, because of the high temperature, this method destroys some of the nutrients in the food. It also changes the colour, texture and flavour of the food. Additives are often used to improve the characteristics of the food. 5. Generally, bottling and canning will start with the food is peeled, cut and partially cooked and will end with the tin cans are heated to a high temperature in a cooker to kill the microorganisms .

Food Spoilage
1. 2. All food turn bad or spoilt after a certain period of time. Any spoilt food has one or more of the following characteristics: a) It has an unpleasant smell. b) It has an unpleasant taste. c) It shows change in colour. d) It shows change of texture. e) It becomes mouldy. 3. Different types of food show different characteristics when they become spoilt. 4. Food spoils due to microorganisms, mainly bacteria and fungi. a) Microorganisms are very tiny organisms. They can only be seen under a microscope. b) Microorganisms exist everywhere around us, such as on our hands, in the air, soil and water. 5. When microorganisms are allowed to get into our food, they live and feed on the food. The microorganisms break the food down into simpler substances. This process is called decaying. 6. Some of the simple substances make the food smell and taste unpleasant. Some of these substances are poisonous. They can cause food poisoning when we eat them. 7. Food poisoning can cause death. This means eating spoilt food can be dangerous. So, spoilt food is not fit to be eaten

8. Microorganisms need all the following conditions to grow and reproduce: a) Air b) Water c) Nutrients (Food) d) Moderate temperature e) Suitable acidity 9. So, microorganisms survive well in moist, warm and dark conditions. This explains why a) food with high water content such as milk, fruits and vegetables spoil easily. b) dry foodstuff like biscuits and milk powder do not spoil easily. c) food kept at room temperature spoils faster than food kept in the refrigerator. d) food kept in a dark room spoils faster than food kept in a bright room.

= rotten fruits

Nama: Nurul Atikah bt Hazmi Kelas: 6 Elit Nama Guru Matapelajaran: Pn. Rashidah bt Mohd Din Tarikh: 17 April 2011