A Brief History of Food Preservation

Abstract

When people have surplus foods and predict potential food insecurity in the future, food preservation needs to be adapted. From early history, humans felt the necessity of food storage and preservation. Human’s inquest mind has innovated and discovered different food preservation systems throughout history. Most of the preservation techniques practiced by the early humans were based on daily experiences. Utilization of natural energy including solar, biomass, and natural phenomena such as evaporation cooling, spontaneous reactions like fermentation are some of the common features of these food preservation techniques. Many traditional food preservation techniques in developing countries still follow this approach extensively. However, a wide variation prevails in each preservation technique in different regions of the globe. This chapter attempts to present a brief on the history of some selected food preservation techniques.