What is considered the most modern method of preservation?
Among the oldest methods of preservation are drying, refrigeration, and fermentation. Modern methods include canning, pasteurization, freezing, irradiation, and the addition of chemicals.
Freezing is one of the most common food preservation techniques we have. Today, there are cold chain programs for every part of the food industry.
Drying is the oldest method of food preservation. This method reduces water activity which prevents bacterial growth. Sun and wind are both used for drying.
High acid foods use a boiling water canner, typically this type of canning makes jams, sauerkraut, pickles, relishes, chutneys, condiments or fruit butters. Whereas low acid foods are canned using a pressure canner. A higher temperature is required to kill bacteria.
Dehydrating is one of the best preservation methods for long-term storage. When stored in an airtight container, dehydrated foods last years, sometimes even decades. Another perk of dehydrating is that the food retains 97 percent of its original nutritional content.
Modern methods include canning, pasteurization, freezing, irradiation, and the addition of chemicals.
Freezing food is quick, easy and probably the most affordable method of food preservation. Many foods can be frozen without disruption of flavor, color and nutritional value. Freezing slows growth of enzymes but does not eliminate them.
Next to freezing, cold cellaring is probably the easiest form of food preservation. In fact, it's even easier than freezing because it requires almost no prep work. It does, however, require access to a root cellar or at least a cold room in your house or garage that will keep foods cool and moist.
Freezing
Freezing is one of the simplest, most convenient, and least time-consuming ways to preserve fresh produce.
The First True Canning Method
By 1810, Englishman Peter Durand had introduced a method for sealing food in "unbreakable" tin cans. The first commercial canning establishment in the U.S. was started in 1912 by Thomas Kensett.
When was modern canning invented?
In 1810 Peter Durand of England patented the use of tin-coated iron cans instead of bottles, and by 1820 he was supplying canned food to the Royal Navy in large quantities.
Cue Nicolas Appert, a candymaker and winner of the prize money and the title “The Father of Canning.” It took him 14 years of experimentation, writes Encyclopedia Britannica, but he developed a canning process that worked.
Freezing preservation retains the quality of agricultural products over long storage periods. As a method of long-term preservation for fruits and vegetables, freezing is generally regarded as superior to canning and dehydration, with respect to retention in sensory attributes and nutritive properties (Fennema, 1977).
