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Food preservation is the science of treating and handling food intended to stop or slow down spoilage; loss of quality, edibility or nutritional value. Food Preservation is also known as a Process to store or preserve food for a long period of time, through various techniques and thus extending the shelf life of food while retaining the nutritional quality of food as much as possible and avoiding the growth of unwanted micro-organisms.
Maintaining or creating nutritional value, texture and flavour are important factors involved in food preservation. The need for food preservation arose because Food is prone to spoilage, the moment it is harvested. To save them from getting spoiled the humans started accumulating knowledge of food preservation. Consequently various food preserving methods were dictated by environmental regions and relied heavily on climate and weather. These were learned, practised and passed on to the next generation. Further, some preserved food items became cultural, religious and or ceremonial practices rather than means for sustenance. Many modern methods of food preservation are based on ancient practices. Some involve storage methods, some involve packaging, and some involve treating the food in particular ways prior to or during storage. In modern times people are commercially driven and do not have the time and energy to indulge in cooking. Thus, the need for food preservation increased even more. Catering to these needs, frozen food, dried food, powdered food, ready to cook meals etc. were developed. People in metropolitan cities often indulge in such food as it is time saving. More and more humans have shifted from rural areas to live in cities and procure foods commercially. As a result, humanity has largely removed itself from the rural self-sufficient way and knowledge of life. Today we eat preserved food not because we have to, but because we can.
Methods of Food Preservation are varied in nature and vary as per the geographical locations. The earliest technique of food preparation or preservation is considered to be - Cooking, which not only extended the range of edible matter but also increased the usable lifetime of the food item itself. Food Preservation is considered as old as 20,000 years as per historical evidence. With the knowledge of food preservation people no longer had to consume the kill or eat the harvest immediately but could save it for later use. Where the climate is freezing, humans started freezing fish and seal meat on the ice. Where the climate is tropical humans started drying foods in the sun. Food preservation methods before 18th and 19th century were largely unsuccessful in long term preservation and were largely non-existent in the world.
It was in the 18th and 19th century that Food Preservation techniques were improved and as a result it became widely used in the food industry. During this time, in 1810 (January) Nicolas Appert invented a major food preservation technique. Nicolas Appert was a French a confectioner and chef in Paris. During 1795, he conducted various experiments in order to preserve various type of food. He succeeded in preserving soups, vegetables, juices, dairy products, jellies, jams and syrups. He would place the food in large mouthed glass jars or bottles, seal them with cork and sealing wax. He would then wrap the containers in canvas to protect them and would place them in boiling water for a certain period of time as deemed appropriate by him. His method came to be popularly known as ‘Nicolas Appert Canning’. It was also referred as ‘Airtight Food Preservation’ and sometimes ‘Appertisation’. His methodology, was inspired by his observation of food cooked inside a jar which did not spoil unless the seals leaked during 1809. After some 14 or 15 years of experiment, Appert submitted his invention and won the prize of 12,000 francs in January 1810. This prize was announced by the French government during the Napoleonic Wars; limited food supply was one of the factors affecting military campaigns. Larger armies required increased and regular supplies of quality food. His packaging solved this problem as it prevented microorganisms from entering and proliferating.
Glass containers presented challenges for transportation. Peter Durand, a British merchant came up with a process which countered this challenge. He had developed a method of heat preservation of food with the use of containers made of pottery, tin, or other metals. For this he received a patent (No 3372) on 25th August, 1810. But it was the use of cylindrical tin or wrought-iron canisters (cans) which was the most effective. However, Durand didn’t put his method for canning food on his own. In 1812, he sold his patent in 1812 to Bryan Donkin and John Hall, for 1,000 British pounds. Donkin was a British engineer and industrialist, involved with tinning of iron from 1808; he was keen to expand it to the food industry. By 1813, Donkin and Hall set up the ‘First Commercial Canning Factory’ in England and produced the ‘First Canned Goods’ for the British army. In 1818, Durand introduced ‘Tin Cans’ in the United States by re-patenting his British patent in the US. By 1820, canned food became common in Britain and France. By 1822, Thomas Kensett introduced the practice in the United States. Tin-coated steel containers, made from 98.5 percent sheet steel with a thin coating of tin, soon became common. These cans had a double seamed top and bottom to provided an airtight seal and could be manufactured at high speeds.
Soon, various types of items like Condensed Milk was introduced by Gail Borden in 1856. By 1858, Mason jars were developed by John Landis Mason. These were made of soda-lime glass and had metal screw-on lid for better preservation of food. Many types of Can Opener and can manufacturing techniques were developed, following the above mentioned inventions. During the 1900’s various types of container-based specialised food preservation cans were developed. As a result, canning of Fish, Juice and Ham were developed and improved.
It was not until 1920, that a major breakthrough was achieved in food preservation. the 1920s Clarence Birdseye, an American founded the modern method of freezing. His method was known as ‘Quick Freezing Theory’. Under this theory, he developed two processes for freezing fish. His first patent, describing a method for preserving piscatorial products, involved placing food between two metal plates that were chilled by a calcium chloride solution to approximately −40° C (−40° F). The second process utilized two hollow metal plates that were cooled to −25° C (−13° F) by vaporization of ammonia. This freezing apparatus was the forerunner of the multiple plate freezer that is widely used in the modern food industry.
Another major food preservation process ‘Aseptic Process’ was developed during 1948. William McKinley Martin developed the ‘Martin System’ which was later known as ‘Dole Aseptic Canning System’. This system involved the sterilization of liquid foods by rapidly heating them in tubular heat exchangers, followed by holding and cooling steps. The cans and lids were sterilized with superheated steam, and the sterilized containers were filled with the sterile liquid food. The lids were then sealed in an atmosphere of superheated steam. This process was partially developed during 1914, in which a sterilized product was placed into a sterilized package and then sealed under sterile conditions. The process was used for sterile filters meant to be used in the wine industry. The process couldn’t be pursued due to the lack of reliable machines. By the 1980s hydrogen peroxide was being used throughout Europe and the United States for the sterilization of polyethylene surfaces.
