Food Processing :: essays research papers

pabulum ProcessingThroughout the history of mankind science has searched into the realmsof the unknown. Along with it rescue new discoveries, allowing for our livesto be trace healthier, more efficient, safer, and at the same time, possibly moredangerous. Among the forces driving scientists into these many experiments, isthe desire to preserve the one fuel that keeps our lives leaving FOOD.As early as the beginning of the 19th century, major breakthroughs in food for thought preservation had begun. Soldiers and seamen, fighting in short sleeps armywere living glowering of salt- preserve meats. These poorly cured foods providedminimal nutritional value, and frequent outbreaks of scurvy were developing. Itwas Napoleon who began the search for a better mechanism of food preservation,and it was he who offered 12,000-franc pieces to the psyche who devised a safeand dependable food-preservation process.The winner was a French chemist named Nicolas Appert. He observed thatfood heat ed in sealed containers was preserved as long as the container remainedunopened or the seal did non leak. This became the turning point in foodpreservation history. Fifty years following the discovery by Nicolas Appert,another breakthrough had developed. Another Frenchman, named Louis Pasteur,historied the relationship between microorganisms and food vitiateage. Thisbreakthrough increased the dependability of the food canning process. As theyears passed new techniques assuring food preservation would come and go,opening new doors to further research.Farmers grow fruits and vege tabulates and fatten stock. The fruits andvegetables are harvested, and the livestock is slaughtered for food. Whathappens between the time food leaves the farm and the time it is eaten at thetable? Like all living things, the plants and animals that become food contain trivial organisms called microorganisms. Living, healthy plants and animalsautomatically control most of these microorganisms. But when t he plants andanimals are killed, the organisms yeast, mold, and bacterium begin to multiply,causing the food to lose flavor and change in color and texture. Just asimportant, food loses the nutrients that are necessary to make believe and replenishhuman bodies. All these changes in the food are what hatful refer to as foodspoilage. To keep the food from spoiling, usually in only a few days, it ispreserved. Many kinds of agents are potentially deadly to the healthfulcharacteristics of fresh foods. Microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi,rapidly spoil food. Enzymes which are present in all raw food, promote abjection and chemical changes affecting especially texture and flavor.Atmospheric oxygen may react with food constituents, causing rancidity or colorchanges. Equally as harmful are infestations by insects and rodents, which