Food processing is a way or technique implemented to convert raw food into well-cooked and well-preserved edibles for both humans and animals. All of these methods are used by the food processing industry to distribute processed or canned foods for our daily consumption. The food processing industry uses clean, harvested, slaughtered and slaughtered components of the highest quality to make highly nutritious, easy-to-cook food products. Below are some techniques and methods used to convert foods into processed or canned foods.
Preservation process: includes heating or boiling to destroy microorganisms, oxidation, toxic inhibition, dehydration or drying, osmotic inhibition, freezing, a kind of cold pasteurization that destroys pathogens, and various combinations of all these methods.
Drying – This is probably the oldest method used by humans to preserve or process their food. Drying reduces the water content in the product and the lack of water greatly retards bacterial growth. Drying is the most common technique for preserving or processing cereal grains such as wheat, corn, oats, rice, barley, grams and rye, etc.
Smoking: many foods such as meat, fish and others are processed, preserved and flavored using smoke mainly in large smokehouses. This process is very simple, as the combination of smoke with uncooked canned food and the aroma of hydrocarbons generated from the smoke processes the food and makes it even more palatable to eat.
Freezing: probably the most common technique used in the modern world to preserve or process food both commercially and at home. This freezing takes place in large cold warehouses that can store a large amount of food that can be used in some natural emergencies. A wide variety of products can be frozen for preserving and processing, including some that do not need to be frozen when in their natural state. For example, French fries and potato wafers require freezing, while a potato does not.
Vacuum packaging: In this method, food is packed in airtight bags and bottles in a vacuum area. This method is used to process food, since the airtight environment does not provide the oxygen that germs, especially bacteria, need to survive. This, then, prevents the food from spoiling. This method is widely used to preserve processed nuts.
Salting – The salting method is used in food processing as it absorbs moisture from food. This is done through the osmosis process. Meat is the best example of foods processed by salting, as nitrates are very often used to treat meat.
Sugar: the method of using sugar to preserve or process food is very common when it comes to preserving fruits. In this method, fruits such as apples, peaches, and plums are cooked with sugar until crystallized and then stored dry. Today, sugar is also used in combination with alcohol to make some brand-name alcoholic beverages and spirits.
Pickling: In this method of food preservation or processing, food is cooked in chemicals and materials that destroy microorganisms. This is very strictly taken into account that these chemicals or materials are fit for human consumption. These typically include brine, vinegar, ethanol, vegetable oil, and many other types of oils. Pickling is very commonly seen on vegetables like cabbage and bell peppers. Corned beef and eggs are non-vegetarian foods that are pickled.
These are some very common methods of preserving or processing food. All of this will work only when processing and preservation is done under very strict rules and regulations set by governments.
