Effectiveness of Food Preservation Systems

Abstract

Food without adequate nutrition cannot serve the purpose of its consumption. The main purpose of food preservation is to retain as much nutrition as fresh foods contain. Maintaining a fresh quality of preserved food does not get proper attention in developing countries. Many advantages such as low initial and maintenance cost, ease of operation, and maintenance can be measured with local materials which are embedded in traditional food preservation techniques; however, energy efficiency and processing time of the traditional preservation techniques are not at a satisfactory level in most of the cases. Overall quality including shelf life can be improved to an appreciable extent. In order to improve energy efficiency, processing time, as well as quality attributes, mistakes and challenges associated with traditional food preservation must be addressed properly. On the other hand, improper preservation may hinder the food safety in the long run. In this chapter, the overall performance of food preservation techniques practiced in developing countries has been extensively discussed.