Monday, April 4, 2011

How Does Canning Preserve Foods?

The high percentage of water in most fresh foods makes them very perishable. They spoil or lose their quality for several reasons:

  • growth of undesirable microorganisms-bacteria, molds, and yeasts
  • activity of food enzymes
  • reactions with oxygen
  • moisture loss
Microorganisms live and multiply quickly on the surfaces of fresh food and on the inside of bruised, insect-damaged, and diseased food. Oxygen and enzymes are present throughout fresh food tissues. Proper canning practices include:

  • carefully selecting and washing fresh food
  • peeling some fresh foods
  • hot packing many foods
  • adding acids (lemon juice or vinegar) to some foods
  • using acceptable jars and self-sealing lids
  • processing jars in a boiling-water or pressure canner for the correct period of time.
Parts to a pressure canner

Boiling water bath canning is used for high acid foods such as tomatoes


Canning Granny©2011 All Rights Reserved

Collectively, these practices remove oxygen, destroy enzymes, prevent the growth of undesirable bacteria, yeasts, and molds; and help form a high vacuum in jars. Good vacuums form tight seals which keep liquid in and air and microorganisms out.

*from uga.edu

1 comment:

  1. This is truly a great read for me. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Please keep up the effective work. see more

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td { margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; outline: 0; font-size: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent; } body { line-height: 1; } ol, ul { list-style: none; } blockquote, q { quotes: none; } /* remember to define focus styles! */ :focus { outline: 0; } /* remember to highlight inserts somehow! */ ins { text-decoration: none; } del { text-decoration: line-through; } /* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */ table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0; }