Abstract
The preservation of foods, an important manufacturing step that is used to provide food safety, maintain quality, extend shelf-life, and prevent spoilage, has long been called “food processing.” In the context of this book “process” is an operation or treatment, and especially in manufacture, a procedure for forward movement such as cutting, slicing, dicing, washing, etc. (Anon., Webster’s 1987). To “preserve” is the act or process of preserving, by canning, pickling, or similarly preparing food for future use (Anon., Webster’s 1987). Preservation methods then are the “actual” acts of preserving to reduce spoilage. Nicolas Appert in 1810 was probably the first person to explain preservation methods primarily by heating in his treatise “The Art of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances.” He originally stated (before the completion of his work) that preserving foods could be reduced to two principal methods, “one in which desiccation is employed and the other in which more or less of a characteristic foreign substance is added to prevent fermentation and putrefaction.” In his book the latter treatment refers to the use of sugar, vinegar, or salt.