FOOD PROCESSING, Packaging and Marketing Management

History of Food Preservation – Complete Explanation

Food preservation has been followed in all cultures at different points in time. Nature had to be
harnessed for man to survive. From the ancient art of sun drying, to modern, hi-tech dehydrators, the
journey has been a long one.

During history, food preservation has enabled man to form a community and consume survival food.
Different cultures have preserved food using different methods of conservation.

Through the history of mankind, science has entered into new realms bring fresh discoveries and new
innovations when it comes to methods of food preservation.

Tracing the history of preserving food, we can see how ancient cultures used to store and process items
such as herbs, spices, meats, fruits, and even vegetables in the Roman civilization of ancient Egypt.

significant milestone in the history of food preservation was the 19th century. Till then, soldiers in
armies were living off preserved meats poorly cured and subject to spoilage.

Salt was an essential preservative used at that point. It was French conqueror Napoleon, who started
the search for better methods of preserving food by offering a vast sum of money to those who devised
safer and reliable means of preserving food.

It was French chemist Nicolas Appert who came up with the solution to the problem. He found that
sealing food in an airtight container could save food from rotting. Five decades later, Frenchman Louis
Pasteur discovered the link between the presence of microorganisms and the spoiling of food.

The breakthrough led to a rise in new techniques of food preservation, such as canning. But scientists
continued to search for more efficient methods of preserving food, culminating in the modern way of
dehydrating food, which is so much more advanced than the ancient practice of drying it naturally.

Food Preservation: An Overview

Food preservation is a set of techniques or methods to prevent food from spoilage. This includes
canning, drying, dehydrating, freeze-drying, smoking, pasteurization, and irradiation, as well as the
addition of chemical additives. Food preservation has become an essential part of the food industry and
daily life.

Food preservation is necessary because increased instances of food spoilage can be attributed to attack
by microbes or disease causing pathogens. Oxidation leads to destruction of essential compounds,
harming the biochemical composition of food as well.

From using high heat to preventing chemical reactions that lead to oxidation and consequent spoilage of
food, techniques of preservation aim to extend the life of food. To keep food from rotting, preservation
is a must. Enzymes in raw fruits and other items can promote degradation, which harms not only the
texture and flavor but also the nutritional value of food. Food that is contaminated may also become
rancid or change color.

Another interesting fact is that different methods of food preservation evolved in different societies and
regions of the world, because of changes in temperature. For example, frozen or canned food in the
polar areas remains fresh, while canned food quickly degrades in tropical regions.

The science behind preserving food is complicated. Even frozen foods cannot survive beyond a few
weeks. For food preservation to last longer, unique treatments are needed. Humans have always had
different measures to preserve food. Ancient people used to dry food in the wind and under the sun to
remove the moisture.

Drying the food slows the rate at which it becomes spoilt because microbes need moisture to thrive. But
this very principle of using extreme temperatures now forms the basis of significant methods of food
preservation, namely canning, dehydration, freezing, freeze-drying, fermentation, pickling, and
irradiation.

Historical Timeline of Food Preservation

During the olden days, people in the Eastern countries where heat and humidity were high and
preserving food was difficult, used unusual methods of preserving food.

This includes wrapping foodstuffs in dried leaves and burying it in hot sands to dry further. Only a
century back, those living in polar regions with freezing temperatures would create caches of food using
freezing as a method to preserve meat they hunted.
Decades later, Native Americans in northern America would use smoke from a fire to dry meats, fish,
herbs, or veggies. Peruvian Indians dried potatoes by freezing them for the duration of the entire night.

The air-dried potatoes would then be thawed and squeezed to release excess moisture and air-dried for
storage. So, different communities and regions at different points in time have used wide and varied
methods of preserving food to save it from one season to another.

During ancient times, food was dried to ensure survival. Without dried foods, nomadic tribes would
have been unable to travel vast distances. Using the sun, wind, or smoke from the fire, food such as
grains, herbs, fruits, and meats were preserved from one year to another.

Over time, as civilizations became more advanced, the techniques of preserving food became more
sophisticated, as can be seen in the table below:

Historical Timeline of Food Preservation Methods Across Cultures

~500,000 BC Fire Cooking

12,000 BC Sun Drying

600 AD Jam Preparation

1400 AD Curing

1784 AD Refrigeration

1809 AD Canning

1871 AD Pasteurization

1945 AD Vacuum Packing

2000+ AD Chemical Preservatives

Perhaps the most advanced civilizations when it came to preserving food were the Greeks and the
Romans, who learned how to dry peas and grapes with a measure of success.

When it came to preserving fruits like dates, melons, and apricots, the Persians excelled. Chinese and
Japanese people during the Middle Ages learned the art of curing fish and sea vegetables.
One of the earliest explorers to use dried milk products on their expeditions were Mongolian invaders!
Early settlers in North America gradually learned the art of sun-drying venison, buffalo meat, herbs,
squash, and a whole lot of harvest crops as they pioneered homestead in the West.

The 19th century marked a turning point in the history of food preservation, as people learned to
preserve fruit caramelized in sugar and salted veggies and nuts. Fruits and vegetables in brine were
other popular methods of food preservation used during this time.

Dried food as a means of preserving it, before the advent of canning and airtight, self-sealing containers
in the 1850s. Sealing wax, corks, and other methods were used to seal the food in containers.

Preserving meat has always been a challenge for cultures around the world. Ancestors during the Stone
Age used to dry meat and fish for storing. As mankind advanced, so did methods of preserving meat.

The meat or fish were pre-treated and cured in dry salt or brine (water and salt solution) to draw
moisture out of them. The meat and fish were also smoked to preserve them.

Different cultures, like the Chinese or the European, would not have survived, had it not been for food
preservation. While sun drying was a practice observed in Egypt in 12,000 BCE, it continued during the
Middle Ages till Europeans invented still houses where food was dehydrated. The fruits and vegetables
in such rooms were strung across a fire and dried for longevity.

France remains the leader in innovation when it comes to food preservation. It was two inventors from
France, namely Chollet and Masson, who developed a process by which vegetables were air heated to
105 degrees F and dried and then compressed for longer shelf life. Dehydrated food experienced a
resurgence during WWII.

Dried soups, potatoes and puddings became nourishment for soldiers fighting the war. Dehydrated food
for everyday use saw a boost with campers and hikers needing to preserve food for long durations.