Food preservation

Preserving food to prevent wastage.

Some foods are common at one time or another. This is what we call season and off-season. During the off-season, food prices are Expensive. Not only that, but it's very difficult to find. We can preserve food crops for the off-season without wasting them.

Why do food crops deteriorate?

The main cause of food spoilage is the moisture in it. Mould, fungi and bacteria in the atmosphere grow on the food material and depend on the nutrients they contain to start breeding. In addition, the ambient temperature can cause food to spoil. Value is also affected. Bacteria range from ph 4.0 to 7.5 and fungus ph 1.5 to 8.5, causing food spoilage. In order to preserve food, the pH value range, which interferes with the survival of these micro-organisms, must be changed. 

The following methods can be used for food preservation.

• Performing dehydration drying.
• Salting and pickling
• Freezing
• Bottling or canning
• Make jam or jelly or marmalade.
• Cordial formation
• Smoking
• Wax coating
• Addition of chemicals
• Radiation

Dehydration

Here the water in the food is removed. Therefore, it does not deteriorate due to the cessation of microbial activity.

Freezing

Freezing slows down the growth of microorganisms, but it is difficult to keep for a long time.

Bottle and canning

The food substance is put in glass bottles or cans and sterilized to kill microorganisms.

Making jams, jellies, marmalades, and cordials is also a popular way to preserve food. It requires well-ripened fruits. 

Also, a thin wax coating can keep the exported fruits for a long time.

The most modern method is to use radiation. This prevents the growth of bacteria and fungi in the food. Here the taste and aroma of the food are preserved without changing the nature of the food.

We use the fridge a lot to preserve food, but there are many foods that can be preserved without the use of refrigerators, and there are different ways to preserve each of these foods. The uniqueness is that these methods can be done at home easily.

Salting

Salt is still used as a preservative in ancient times. Lime, fish, mango, dried fruits etc. can be preserved by salting. What is done here is to remove the moisture in the food by the process called osmosis.

Putting sugar

Foods can be preserved by adding honey or preparing jam. During the fruiting season, any fruit that grows in our garden can be preserved as a jam with sugar.

Canning and bottling

Canning can be described as a suitable method for cooked food. It is important to sterilize the bottles used for packaging.

Pickling

Food preservatives can be used to preserve food. Vinegar, alcohol, vegetable oils, olive oil, and many other oils are used for this purpose. Heating is also used here. Any kind of food can be preserved by this.

Drying food

Drying food is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to preserve food. It can preserve jackfruit, bread, various fruits, meat, fish, and much more.

We talked above, about some of the ways to preserve food without refrigeration when it is common. Most of the things we use daily can be stored for a long time without refrigeration.

1. Potatoes, onions, etc. can be stored in a dry cool place in a well-ventilated area.

2. You can create something like a layer that collects smoke on top of the stove and store things like dried sprats.

3. Boil garlic, ginger, turmeric, etc. and make it into a paste and keep it for about two weeks.

4. Herbs can be preserved without wilting by storing them in a bowl of water or wrapping them in water-soaked paper.

5. If the vegetables are stored outside without refrigeration, it is important to store them in a cool place. Also, water should be sprayed from time to time to prevent drying.

6. For grains storing with cloves, cinnamon leaves, cinnamon bark, etc. prevents pest damage.

7. Milk can be stored for several days as a curd.

8. Lotus stalks, kohila, etc. can be kept fresh by immersing them in a pot of water.

9. Dried coconuts can be stored in a bucket of water for a few days and used for everyday cooking to prevent them from drying out.

10. When storing a coconut without refrigeration, it can be stored for about three days by keeping it well salted.

Should vegetables and fruits be stored for months?

Many people use the freezer to preserve meat and fish ice creams, but also to preserve fruits and vegetables. This method is not really sterilizing and preserving food. Here, the quality of the vegetables and fruits is maintained by reducing the microbial activity by giving a very low temperature. Also, the quality of these frozen vegetables depends on the quality of the vegetables and fruits that we use for freezing. That is, using fresh vegetables and fruits for freezing. And this can not be used to improve the quality of vegetables and fruits.

Now let us see what are the correct steps for freezing.

1. Select the appropriate package.

The package should be water vapour resistant, durable, easily sealed and resistant to low temperatures. Plastic freeze containers and flexible freezer bags can be easily used at home.

2. Blanching.

Preparation of vegetables and fruits for freezing by hot water blanching or steam blanching. In hot water blanching, the fruits and vegetables should be washed thoroughly with water. Then leave it at 90 - 100 c temperature for 3-4 minutes and remove it quickly. Vegetables and fruits should be kept fresh when choosing for blanching and this will affect the quality of the frozen vegetables. The reason for this is mainly to inactivate the enzymes present on the vegetable surface. Blanching time varies according to the type of vegetable and the size of the pieces. Prolonged exposure to hot water can cause discolouration and loss of heat-sensitive vitamins.

3. Put in cold water with ice.

Vegetables and fruits should be removed from the hot water and quickly immersed in a bowl of cold water with ice for a few minutes and allowed to dry well. The reason for this is to avoid boiling the vegetables.

4. Storage in the Freezer.

Once well packaged, mark the packaging date and store at 0 F (-18 C) or lower. Many vegetables and fruits can be stored for 4-6 months. We can also cook frozen vegetables immediately (without thawing).

How to make a pickle

Ingredients 

• 250g of red onion
• 2 carrots (cut into 2-inch long sticks)
• 5 Beans  
• 15 raw chillies (split in half)
• Small raw papaya (cut into 2 inch long sticks)
• 1 cup of vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoons of mustard powder
• Salt
• Piece of ginger (about 2 inches long)
• 5g of garlic
• A little bit of turmeric powder. 

How to make

Add mustard, salt, ginger, garlic and turmeric powder and grind well. Then put some vinegar in a clay pot and stir well. Then add red onion, carrots, beans, chilli and papaya separately in vinegar and cook for about 30 seconds.

Then add the mustard powder and ginger mixture to the vinegar and cook for about 2 minutes. Now remove the vinegar mixture from the stove and add all the pre-prepared vegetables and mix well.

It can then be stored in a well-dried clean glass bottle or clay pot.

This tastes great and smells good.

It is very important to use a clay pot when making pickles. Also, if you use a clean, non-abrasive spoon, this can last for about 5-6 months.