Food Preservation: Traditional and Modern Techniques

In order to store the foodstuffs for a longer period without spoilage, proper preservation is important. However, preservative must not be toxic to human. There are techniques to eliminate microbial contamination and to avoid rancidity of fat. Care must also be taken to preserve nutritional value, texture and flavour of foodstuffs. In this mini-review, traditional techniques for preservation such as curing, freezing, canning, boiling, pickling and many more as well as modern techniques such as pasteurization, freeze drying, vacuum packing, irradiation, pascalization, biopreservation, hurdle technology and modified atmosphere are briefly discussed.