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Throughout human history, food preservation and storage has been crucial to survival in times of scarcity. Our ancestors developed a vast array of methods to preserve their food, such as drying, smoking, salting, and fermentation. But food preservation is just as important today, particularly in the face of mounting pressure to develop sustainable, long-term food production systems in the era of climate change.
From methods of modern preservation and fermentation to the histories of canning and food waste, these specially-curated and freely accessible chapters explore five key subjects across food preservation and storage.
Humans have long been faced with the problem of alternating food scarcity and seasonal over-abundance. However, processes like refrigeration, freezing and freeze-drying, radiation, pasteurisation, chemical preservatives, vacuum-packing, and a host of other methods have been developed throughout human history as a means of preserving our food. In this chapter from Can It!: The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods, author Gary Allen explores the methods used by the food industry today, most of which are beyond the reach of home cooks. Nonetheless, he argues, technologies have a habit of working their way down the food chain, so it is not inconceivable that, someday, our home kitchens may contain devices that make use – on a smaller scale, of course – of some of these methods. A hundred years ago, who would have imagined that home kitchens in the twenty-first century would routinely sport food processors, KitchenAids, freezers, Cryovacs, and microwave ovens?
From canning and condensing to irradiation and high-pressure processing, explore further by reading the chapter "Modern Preserving Methods"from Can It!: The Perils and Pleasures of Preserving Foods by Gary Allen.
Humans have a long history of preserving fish. The Egyptians, the first to realize salt’s preservation capabilities, generated a burgeoning trade in salted fish around 2800 BC with salt collected from the Nile River marshes. Conserving food to last through non-growing seasons has always been necessary for human survival, with the two most common methods of preserving cod being drying and salting. In this chapter from Elisabeth Townsend’s Cod: A Global History, the author explores how these preservation techniques allowed fishers to take advantage of the bountiful cod stocks in the North Atlantic, and led to centuries of cod being the most consumed fish in the Western world.
Townsend also emphasizes that while cod at some points in history has appeared to be an endless resource, modern day consumers have become increasingly concerned with the need for measures protecting cod populations. She argues that this distress is not unfounded, particularly with our history of stubborn overfishing. Buying cod that comes from a sustainable fishery takes some attention, but not a lot of work, and supports the existing fisheries.
Explore further by reading the chapter "Preserving, Buying and Preparing Cod" from Cod: A Global History by Elisabeth Townsend.
Canisters and cans mark the early industrialization of food packaging. In this chapter from her bookThe (Not So) Secret Lives of Packaging, Anne Murcott journeys through the origins of the ubiquitous tin can, beginning in the late eighteenth century with French inventor Nicolas Appert and his original methods of food preservation. Murcott then leads the reader through the history of the can’s distribution through Europe, first commercialized in England and then, by the early twentieth century, with the American industry leading the world. Although modifications have been made to the technical specifications of the can since then, the technology remains essentially the same as that described by Appert over 200 years ago. In spite of their vast range of uses and benefits for food storage, the tin can continues to suffer from a public image as second-class.
Learn more by reading the chapter "Canisters, Cans and Canning" from The (Not So) Secret Lives of Food Packaging by Anne Murcott.
Food fermentation is an economic, highly used preservation method that prevents food contamination due to microbial metabolites released during the fermentative process. This means that the fermenting of foods can be used on an industrial scale to help preserve a wide range of foods for significantly longer. Fermentation processes have been applied in food production throughout human history, perhaps most famously in the original production of cheese. This was caused by an accidental fermentation in which cow or sheep bladders were used to transport milk over a long journey, during which microorganisms in the bladders changed the composition of the milk and over time created cheese. However, the authors of this chapter argue that the real importance of a successful process in the food industry is not just for the capacity to create a simple food product, but improving sensorial characteristics such as flavor and texture.
Explore more by reading the chapter “Fermentation as a Preservation Strategy in Foods" from Food Microbiology and Biotechnology by María Georgina Venegas-Ortega, Víctor Emmanuel Luján-Torres, Adriana Carolina Flores-Gallegos, José Luis Martinez-Hernández and Guadalupe Virginia Nevárez-Moorillón.
The virtue of minimizing food waste has been built into most cultures and religions throughout history, and for thousands of years homemakers have employed various techniques to help prevent food spoilage. During the late nineteenth century, many new techniques were developed to preserve food for longer. These include improved food packaging, such as machine-made metal cans and glass bottles, and paper and cardboard boxes and bags. New processes, such as pasteurization and chlorination, helped keep food and beverages safer for longer periods of time. Despite these changes, food waste rapidly expanded during the second half of the twentieth century. In this chapter from his book Why Waste Food?, author Andrew F. Smith explores the many reasons people waste food, historic and present-day attempts to prevent food waste, and approaches to increasing the longevity of our food.
Explore more by reading the chapter "Consumer Waste" from Why Waste Food by Andrew F. Smith.
