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Food Spoilage
2. Fresh products such as fruits, milk and vegetables do not last long if kept at room
temperature.
1. The growth of microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria can spoil food.
2. Fungi and bacteria can grow easily on damp foods that are exposed to the air.
3. Fungi and bacteria change the food material into simple substances.
7. Eating spoilt food can also cause bacterial and fungal infections.
10. Bacteria and fungi can grow easily in damp and warm conditions.
Food Preservation
1. We can prevent food from going off or at least delay it.
1. Drying involves the removal of water contained in the food. There are three ways of
drying foods:
(a) Drying food under the sun.
(b) Drying food over fire (wood or charcoal fire) or oven.
(c) Passing food through hot air to extract the water content.
3. We can make this process more effective by adding salt to the food before it is dried.
4. The dried food can be kept longer because microorganisms cannot grow due to
lack water.
Boiling/heating
1. Heat can kill various microorganisms that can cause food turn bad.
3. When food is boiled, cooked, fried or grilled, the bacteria present in the food are killed.
Cooling
2. In cool conditions bacteria become less active a do not reproduce or give off poisonous
gases.
3. Fruits and vegetables are examples of food that can be kept longer in cool temperatures.
4. Low temperatures do not kill the bacteria and fungi, but it slows down their growth.
5.
Examples of food preserved by cooling
Vacuum-packing
3. Microorganisms cannot survive without air as they require air for respiration.
5. Examples of fruits that are preserved by vacuum-packing are bananas, pineapples and
corn.
Pickling
7. Unripe papaya, mango, nutmeg, chilies and some vegetables are suitable for pickling.
Freezing
1. Meat, poultry and fish are examples of food that are normally preserved by freezing.
6. Food that can be preserved by freezing is chicken, meat, prawns and cuttlefish.
Bottling/canning
3. The food is cooked before it is canned or bottled. The air within is removed before the
container is sealed. Growth of bacteria and mould is prevented due to the lack or air.
4. Foods that can preserve by canning or bottling include meat, fish, fruits and vegetables.
5. Diagram below shows the steps in the bottling process.
Pasteurizing
1. Heating up food without boiling them can kill the microorganisms in the food.
2. To pasteurize fresh milk, it is heated at 65oC for 30 minutes or at 27oC for 15 seconds.
Then, the milk is cooled down quickly and packed into sterile containers.
5. We can make this process more effective by drying the salted food.
6. Examples of food that can be preserved by salting are vegetables, meat, fish and eggs.
Smoking
3. The smoke will dry the food but does not cook it.
7. Then, it is slowly cooked over a flameless fire where only smoke is emitted.
8. This method is used for foods that are eaten raw such as beef fillets or smoked fish.
9. This method is also used to preserve fruits such as bananas and dates.
Waxing
1. We can preserve food by covering with wax. This process is called waxing.
3. Waxing help to slow down the loss of water from fruits and vegetables.
4. Waxing also give a gloss to the skin and makes the fruits and vegetables more shiny.
6. Even washing in hot water cannot remove the wax from the waxed food.
2. Spoilt food cannot be eaten. It will cause food poisoning with symptoms such as
vomiting and diarrhea.
5. The preservation of food enables uncooked meat to be distributed in frozen form to all
parts of the world without lowering its quality.
7. Food preservation can help the nation's economy by adding value to our export products.