Introduction

Abstract

Food preservation may be defined as any method of treating food that prolongs the length of time for which the acceptable attributes of quality, including colour, texture and flavour are retained. This definition encompasses such a wide time-scale that it includes at the one end the short-term domestic methods of cooking and cool storage, and at the other end processes such as canning, freezing and dehydration, which can extend the life of a product to several years. If microbiological stability is considered, short-term methods such as chilling often prove inadequate after a few days and microbial growth occurs on the food, whereas industrial processes of preservation such as sterilisation, dehydration and freezing give food an infinite microbiological shelf-life provided that it is adequately packaged. The last point is particularly important — indeed food preservation and packaging are inseparably linked.