Food preservation: an introduction

Key Topics in Food Science and Technology No.9 (2004)

A concise overview of the principles of established approaches to food preservation and their role in assuring food safety and preventing food spoilage

Effective food preservation is essential in securing a consistent supply of safe food. A wide range of approaches to food preservation has emerged over many years - some being widely applicable with others restricted to particular food groups. The approaches share the common purpose of delaying the inevitable spoilage of foods whilst ensuring safe end products. This short book provides an introductory overview of the main established approaches to food preservation, explaining the principles of how they work and illustrating these with examples of processes in industrial use and products from the marketplace. It is aimed at anyone within the food industry, enforcement bodies or the educational sector who wishes to acquire a broad appreciation of the core principles of food preservation.

After a general introduction to food preservation and its importance, it works in turn through the major approaches including temperature, water activity, chemical and microbiological preservation systems, modified atmosphere and vacuum packaging, and the use of multiple approaches in combination. A final section outlines how the shelf-life of foods preserved by such approaches can be assessed, while a short chapter on new technologies in preservation provides a useful lead-in to the related Key Topic New technologies in food preservation: an introduction, which covers these in more detail. As with all the books in this series, the intention is to be illustrative rather than comprehensive, and to present the information with a strong industrial slant.

Contents include:

• Introduction
• Heat processing
• Low temperature preservation techniques
• Drying and water activity
• Chemical preservation methods
• Microbial preservation systems
• Modified atmosphere packaging
• Vacuum packaging
• Novel techniques
• Combining preservation techniques
• Shelf-life of preserved foods
• Conclusions
• References and further reading

Softcover - 95 pages

The Key Topics in Food Science & Technology Series has been developed to meet a need within industry, education and enforcement bodies for industrially relevant introductory guides to specific aspects of food science and technology.