
Food preservation is a method to store food for an extended period. It can be done by using different tricks and tips depending on the nature of food. This preservation is helpful for households or commercial kitchens, or it can sell to direct customers. Preservation can be done to prevent food from bacteria and germs that spoiled the food and make it gross and uneatable.
Before jumping into any method of preservation, let’s discuss why restoration of food is necessary?
Experience of centuries, eras, and millennia has taught human beings the best and economical ways of preservation. They had learnt different practical tactics to save food.
Preservation is essential to keep food at its best quality and retain its rich taste. Every food has such ingredients that make it deteriorates and spoil its nutritional values and taste. For some food, mild spoilage doesn’t affect its nutritional value but makes the taste, texture, and presentation unsatisfactory.
The other reason is to save the hard-earned cash. Food can be used for an extended period of time to remain on budget and avoid purchasing more stuff. Besides that, it is the best way to use fruit, veggies, and other food items instead of throwing them into the trash.
Here are the methods of keeping food for a long time. Read it carefully to get the complete detail and use it to save money or maintain food quality.
Refrigerate the Food
This is one of the simplest yet oldest ways to keep the food in the refrigerator. It requires nothing but a fridge, and you are done with it. Why keeping in the fridge? The reason is low temperature or cold reduce the growth of bacteria and minimize the chances of spoilage. The food can be stored for up to days or weeks without spoiling the taste.
Freezing
Follow the instruction correctly, you can preserve the food for months. Because bacteria can’t grow at such low temperatures and your food can be reserve to eat for almost infinite periods of time. Here are some steps you have to follow if you want to freeze the food
Maintain the temperature of the refrigerator up to -18C to -22C.
Keep your food in an airtight container or polythene bags.
Wrap it properly, especially meat or soft fruits, or else it may get freezer burns and deteriorate.
Frosting the food is a good option. However, it eventually spoils the quality of food, so it is better to consume the food right away or freeze it for the minimum time if possible.
Sugaring
Sugar is the best ingredient to preserve food, especially fruits. You can store many pulpy fruits by using this method. You can make homemade jams or marmalade that lasts up to months. How sugar preserve the fruits? The answer is sugar minimizes the growth of bacteria by reducing the food’s water content.
You can preserve apples, peaches, plums, cherries, and more when sugared. Moreover, you can save certain fish or meat by combining salt and sugar and dissolving it with another liquid to make a brine.
If you are very concern about your diet, you can purchase fresh fruit or veggies from Woolworth by catching Woolworths promo code to shop at the best rates.
Vacuum Packing
Vacuuming is similar to canning as it makes the food packet airtight that deprives bacteria of oxygen so it can’t grow and harm the food. It extends the life of food. It is also used at the commercial level. It usually maintains the food’s smell, color, taste, and texture.
In the absence of air, the moisture of food is retained, which optimizes the quality of food. If you want to store the food, follow the instruction:
Prepare the food hygienically. Wash it properly and cut the unwanted area of fruit or skin from the meat.
Keep the food in a clean and proper vacuum plastic bag.
Feed the plastic bag into a vacuum packing machine.
Store the packet in the refrigerator or a cool, dry place.
Wrap Up
Use the stated method for food preservation and store the food for an extended period of time. It will help you save your money and you can have healthy and fresh food every time. But it would be better if you buy limited food products to use right away without taking the stress of preservation.