FOOD PRESERVATION AND PROCESSING

I.

CAUSES OF FOOD SPOILAGE

A. What is food spoilage? o Means the original nutritional value, texture, flavor of the food are damaged, the food become harmful to people and unsuitable to eat. o Refers to deterioration of the physical and chemical properties of food, making it unfit for consumption. B. Causes of Food Spoilage a) Microbial Spoilage a. Yeasts -growth causes fermentation which is the result of yeast metabolism. There are two types of yeasts true yeast and false yeast. b. Moulds -grow in filaments forming a tough mass which is visible as `mould growth'. Moulds form spores which, when dry, float through the air to find suitable conditions where they can start the growth cycle again. c. Bacteria - are round, rod or spiral shaped microorganisms. Bacteria may grow under a wide variety of conditions. b) Autolysis -commonly known as self-digestion, refers to the destruction of a cell through the action of its own enzymes. It may also refer to the digestion of an enzyme by another molecule of the same enzyme. The term derives from the Greek words "self" and "splitting". a. Enzymes -are proteins found in all plants and animals. If uncooked foods are not used while fresh, enzymes cause undesirable changes in colour, texture and flavour. Enzymes are destroyed easily by heat processing. b. Oxidation by air -atmospheric oxygen can react with some food components which may cause rancidity or color changes. c) Other factors that can affect the food to spoil a. Improper handling -refers to the use of dirty hands, dirty containers and dirty places. It also refers to workers who are not careful in transporting and handling the food resulting to cuts, bruises, and blemishes. b. Improper storage -different food requires different places and temperature for storage.

c. Inadequate preparation and cooking -this refers to uncooked meat or fish which, when left at room temperature, will later spoil. d. Careless packaging -packaging is important to keep bacteria away and to maintain the good quality of the food. e. Invasion of harmful microorganism -there are harmful microorganisms that spoil food. C. Preventing food spoilage -To prevent from spoiling, handle and store food properly. You can do this by storing fresh food like fish, meat and poultry in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator. Drying foods like dried fish, dried fruits and vegetable as bacteria do not thrive in dried foods. II. FOOD PROCESSING

Eating food fresh is not always possible, for example during the winter when the crops did not grow. Animal foods also were often harvested in one season and needed to be preserved so they could be eaten later in the year. As a result, people learned how to alter most foods to preserve them and at times, to alter their flavor or texture for various reasons such as to make them tastier. These methods are called food processing or food refining. A. Major types of Food Processing a. Freezing -this is one of the very best methods of preserving food. It is a modern processing method used only in the last 75 years or so when electric freezers became available. b. Drying -this is one of the most ancient methods of preserving some meats, and some fruits and vegetables. c. Freeze drying. This is a modern scientific combination of the two methods above. It is done with special machines that can extract the moisture in the food as it is being cooled at the same time. d. Vacuum packing -in this method of food preservation, often dried food is placed in plastic bags and then all the air is extracted. e. Packaging in a gas other than air -this is a relatively modern method of food preservation. f. Fermenting -in this method of food processing, a yeast or ferment is added to a liquid mixture of milk, or hops or some other food and the yeast is allowed to grow. g. Smoking -this is another ancient method in which fish, meats and perhaps other foods are basically dried in a smoke house.

h. Pickling -is the process whereby food such as cucumbers are soaked in a salt solution, perhaps with vinegar, and often with other added chemicals and ferments or yeasts, for up to a month or longer. i. Salting -is an excellent food preservative because it pulls the moisture out of the food so that bacteria will not grow as readily. j. Preserving with sugar or honey -sugar and honey can preserve some foods by an osmotic process that kills most germs on contact. k. Refining away parts of the food that spoil -to preserve wheat, for instance, the germ and bran are often removed, leaving the familiar white flour product. l. Modern chemical preservatives -many chemicals can be added to foods to preserve the food colors, flavors, or to inhibit mold and bacteria growth.

References: Wilson, Lawrence MD., The Center For Development, August 2010 http://home.pacific.net.hk/~ppleung/Chem/spoilage.htm
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/ResourcesForYou/HealthEducators/ucm109315.pdf