Introductory Chapter: Food processing, preservation, and packaging - A brief overview

Authors: Tumuluru, Jaya Shankar

Submitted to: IntechOpen
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/26/2023
Publication Date: 4/5/2023
Citation: Tumuluru, J. 2023. Introductory Chapter: Food processing, preservation, and packaging - A brief overview. In: Tumuluru, J.S. editor. Food Processing and Packaging Technologies. United Kingdom: IntechOpen. p. 3-13. https://doi.org/10.1142/9781800613799_0011www.intechopen.com/chapters/86251.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110229

Interpretive Summary: Food processing, preservation, and packaging are important to increase food availability for human consumption. Various traditional and modern processing methods help reduce the food's post-harvest and quality losses during storage. This chapter provides an overview of food processing, preservation, and packaging technologies used to develop new products and improve their shelf life. Many traditional and modern preservation techniques have been developed for food storage. Traditional methods commonly used are pickling, curing, drying, and fermentation. The modern methods used for food preservation are pasteurization, freeze drying, vacuum packing, irradiation, chemical preservatives, pascalization, biopreservation, hurdle technology, nonthermal plasma, and a modified and controlled atmosphere. Both the traditional and modern methods can help improve the shelf stability of foods such as meats, fruits, vegetables, and fish-based products and also help to reduce the post harvest losses.

Technical Abstract: Food processing, preservation, and packaging are important to increase food availability for human consumption. Food processing includes mechanical, chemical, and thermal methods to process foods to increase their palatability and shelf life. Various traditional and modern processing methods reduce post-harvest losses during storage. Commonly used food processing methods are refrigeration, canning, irradiation, drying, salting, smoking, and fermentation, which help improve the shelf stability of foods such as meats, fruits, vegetables, and fish-based products. In addition, food preservation and packaging research improve the shelf of convenient, ready-to-eat, tasty, and mild processed food products. Finally, the various research areas of food preservation include preventing the growth of bacteria, fungi, or other microorganisms and preventing chemical reactions, such as retarding the oxidation of fats, thus extending the shelf life of food products. This chapter provides an overview of food processing, preservation, and packaging technologies used to develop new products and improve their shelf life.