The purpose, processes and methods of food preservation have gone through significant changes throughout its history. What started out as a necessary activity to be able to provide soldiers with food when deployed in a far away land, has transformed into a worldwide industry where preserved products are now used for various things including snacks, relief goods, and camping provisions to name only a few. Also, preserved foods enjoy a much better reputation today as compared to when it was first introduced. Back then, people regarded preserved food with much apprehension or as an unnecessary luxury since it costs too much due to the then inefficient way of canning the products. In terms of the process, the concept behind food preservation then was to drive air out of the container as they believed it to be the cause of decay. Later discoveries however, particularly that of Louis Pasteur made it clear that bacteria, not air was the one truly responsible. Following this revelation, we now have several methods of preserving food that are all widely used today. To properly understand the process, we must remember that food preservation is done to either slow down the decay of food, or eliminate the bacteria altogether. Here we look at some of the most commonly used methods of food preservation.
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