Food preservation

“ FOOD PRESERVATION. The preservation of food material beyond the short term during which it naturally keeps sound and eatable has engaged human thought from the earliest dawn of civilization. Necessity compelled man to store the plenitude of one season or place against the need of another. The hunter dried, smoked and salted meat and fish, pastoral man preserved milk in the form of cheese and butter, or fermented grape-juice into wine. ”

“ Methods of food preservation may be broadly divided into two classes—first, those which accomplish their purpose by changing the physical condition of the food, as by drying, or cooking and hermetical sealing ”

“ Our people want a food supply that is safe, high in quality and appearance, adequate nutritionally, and reasonably priced. Many consumers try to obtain these food attributes by returning to the “old ways” of growing and preserving food themselves.
To understand food preservation, let’s look at five causes of food spoilage or deterioration (four are biological, the fifth physical or mechanical) :
(1) The primary cause of food spoilage in the United States is microbiological. Micro-organisms are small living organisms such as yeast, molds, or bacteria. ”

“ Publications give safe procedures for preserving fruits, vegetables, meats, and poultry. Many thousands of these publications have been distributed to consumers, and the procedures have been widely used by others who make recommendations to the public about food preservation. ”

“ Nowhere is the trend more apparent than in the area of home production and preservation of the family food supply. Ten years ago no one would have dreamed the lowly canning jar lid would be the subject of Federal hearings. No one would have believed that an estimated one in four U.S. families would be raising and preserving a portion of their food supply. ”

“ The conservation of our animal food resources presents a different problem from any other. It is true that we have wasted and exhausted our natural food supplies, but we must remember that to a certain extent their preservation was neither possible nor desirable. They have been driven out by advancing civilization.
Wild birds and animals leave as the forests are cut out, destroying their natural homes. Many of them can not be kept in captivity, so this supply never could have been regulated. ”

“ Upon these simple truths rests the economic utility of cold storage preservation. Practically its benefits in the conservation of food, and in the encouragement of maximum production, are to be gained only through the opportunity for profit, and while the business of carrying foods from seasons of abundance to natural scarcity is open to all it is naturally conducted chiefly by the tradesmen who are permanently engaged in food distribution, and who are most familiar with trade conditions and the varying relations of supply and demand. ”

“ Article 9 To assure the proper conservation of natural resources being utilized, or which might be utilized, for food production, all countries must collaborate in order to facilitate the preservation of the environment, including the marine environment. ”

“ It was in that warm period that the man lived and died whose fibula occurs among the bones in the cave.
Methods of preserving Fresh Meat.—So numerous are the processes devised in modern times for the preservation of food, that a simple catalogue of them would occupy several pages of this magazine. In so far as the preservation of vegetables and of certain fruits is concerned a very fair measure of success has undoubtedly been achieved; but with flesh-meat the case is different. ”

“ What motivates people to return to home food production and preservation? Are their expectations realistic? How extensive is their gardening? Will they continue a second year? Do they preserve any of their crop? ”

“ One need never be at a loss to prepare a good meal at short notice with this supply in reserve.
75 CARE OF FOOD. One may buy food with good judgment, and yet fail to be an economical provider because she does not take proper care of it. Perfect cleanliness is essential for the best preservation of food. The cellar, pantries, storerooms, refrigerators, and all the receptacles in which food is kept, should be frequently inspected and thoroughly cleaned. Heat and moisture tend to cause decay ”

“ There are three distinct reasons why foods should be preserved in the home. The first is to bring about economy. If fruits, vegetables, and other foods can be procured at a price that will make it possible to preserve them in the home at a lower cost than that of the same foods prepared commercially, it will pay from an economical standpoint. The second is to promote conservation; that is, to prevent the wasting of food. ”

“ If it were not perishable it would be the practice of every individual to conserve a sufficient amount of food as might be required. No better means of preventing waste of food is known at the present time than by the use of cold storage, and the use accomplishes most desirable results, advantageous to both consumer and producer, by the conservation of food, which is just as desirable as the conservation of our natural resources. ”

“ I merely throw out this as a possible result of a new system of agriculture, that vegetable products will be found well suited both for the climate, as regards profit to the farmer, and to the health of the inhabitants, who, under the present artificial inducements to the rearing of cattle, and consequent cheapness of meat, eat a great deal too much of it, and neglect those more salutary productions which nature provides as the cheapest and best food for a dense population, many of whom are occupied in sedentary employments quite inconsistent with a stimulating diet. ”

“ Saving of waste is commendable and will go a long way, but this is a kind of passive service; loyal citizens ought to be active participants in the food conservation movement, which is a movement to distribute food in the way which shall promote the efficiency of our allies and ourselves in this world upheaval. To do this without increasing the cost of one’s diet requires a careful study of the situation. ”

“ The investigations are, therefore, in reality a study of the conservation of the food supply, a problem even more fundamentally important than the conservation of our mines, forests or water powers, and one which vitally concerns the welfare not of the farmer alone but of the whole people. ”

“ A third step in the program of economy is the reduction of the amount of meat consumed. In many American families at least one-third the food money is spent for meat. That there are adequate substitutes which may be used to reduce the amount of meat bought has been already shown. Saving of meat is one of the most important planks in the food conservation program; so here again there is no inevitable conflict between conservation and economy. ”

“ There is imperative need for saving of food materials; at best there will not be enough to go around, and all the world, ourselves included, will suffer in proportion as we neglect the duty of food conservation. To be economical in the use of food materials according to the program of the Food Administration may, probably will, demand the spending of more money, time, and thought upon food. If we have the money and time to spend, well and good; but if we have not, how shall we do our share in sending more “wheat, meat, sugar and fats to our soldiers, sailors and allies”? ”

“ They follow naturally upon the development of immense cities housing millions of people, who necessarily must receive perishable foodstuffs produced at a great distance. To even a greater extent they are the product of countless ingenious methods devised mainly to render foods stable—drying, heating, the addition of preservatives—most of which accomplish their object, but incidentally rob the food of its essential vitamine. ”

“ Provide nutrition, sanitation, and health education for the public and promote technologies and training programmes on nutrition, home economics, environmental protection, food supply and health.
COMMITMENT THREE We will pursue participatory and sustainable food, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and rural development policies and practices in high and low potential areas, which are essential to adequate and reliable food supplies at the household, national, regional and global levels, and combat pests, drought and desertification, considering the multifunctional character of agriculture. ”

“ With the increase of prosperity, it has been observed, there is a corresponding increase in the use of animal food. In Spain, France, Italy, and the warmer portions of Europe, the cooling acids of the fruits and the less-heating elements of the vegetable kingdom are better suited to the climatic needs of the people. ”

“ Taking one year with another, the amount of vegetable productions is just sufficient for the sustenance of the animals. Supply and demand are in as rigid proportions here as elsewhere. Nature is no doubt as admirably endowed with the regulating principles for the conservation of quantities, as we know she is with those for the conservation of areas. If from the combustion of coal, and the consumption of food, there be a greater quantity of gases evolved and discharged into the air, there is on the other hand an increased vegetable production sufficient to absorb and condense it. ”

“ There can be no doubt that, wherever possible, the best method for the housewife to preserve food is to do her own drying, canning, preserving and pickling of fruits and vegetables, which she knows are fresh, putting up her own preserves, jams, jellies, pickles, syrups, grape juice, etc.
Since economy in food lies in the least amount of money for the greatest amount of nutriment, the preparation of simple foods in the home, with a care that no more is furnished for consumption than the system requires, is the truest economy in health and in doctor’s bills. ”

“ Section through a Nansen Sledging Cooker mounted on the primus
The subject of food is one which requires peculiar consideration and study. It is assumed that a polar expedition must carry all its food-stuffs in that variety and quantity which may approximately satisfy normal demands. Fortunately, the advance of science has been such that necessaries like vegetables, fruit, meats and milk are now preserved so that the chances of bacterial contamination are reduced to a minimum. ”

“ As a result of campaigns for signed pledges, some 14,000,000 families, 7,000 hotels and public eating-places, and 425,000 retail dealers were enrolled in the United States as definitely pledged to the observance of the food conservation programme. Retail dealers in food were eventually required to limit their sale of wheat flour and to require the purchase of a certain specified proportion of substitutes as an accompaniment of every purchase of wheat flour. ”

“ If you cannot grow vegetables, use them in abundance anyway. They are too perishable to ship abroad and too bulky, containing so much water that it would be an uneconomical use of shipping to export them. But the more America eats of almost any kind of vegetable or fruit, the less of the more durable, concentrated foods will she require. The products are so varied in kind and composition that they can be used to serve almost any purpose—beans and peas to save meat; potatoes and others to save wheat; sweet fruits to save sugar; jams, even, when spread on bread, to save fat. ”

“ Food kept for consumption in the winter time in cold climates, or in arid districts far away from its production, would in part require cooking, but that made of grains could be prepared at laboratories in a dry, unchangeable, sterile form, while some of the animal and fatty foods could be partly predigested and preserved for invalids. ”

“ Encourage, where appropriate, the production and use of culturally appropriate, traditional and underutilized food crops, including grains, oilseeds, pulses, root crops, fruits and vegetables, promoting home and, where appropriate, school gardens and urban agriculture, using sustainable technologies, and encourage the sustainable utilization of unused or underutilized fish resources ”

“ Establish policies and implement programmes to optimize, in an economically, socially and environmentally sound manner, sustainable agriculture, fisheries and forestry production, particularly of the main staple foods, aimed at achieving food security ”

“ Particular attention should be given to those who cannot produce or procure enough food for an adequate diet, including those affected by war, civil strife, natural disaster or climate related ecological changes. ”

“ One of the most important features of the food conservation movement in Germany since the outbreak of the war, and one which has been of material aid in maintaining the physical fitness of the German industrial worker and his family, has been the practice of drying fruits and vegetables. ”

“ Exclusive of fruits and vegetables valued at $715,920, fish at $274,403, and oysters at $12,900, manufactured by establishments classified as food preparations, pickles, preserves and sauces, slaughtering and meat packing, wholesale, etc.
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Importance of the Industry. —The importance of the canning industry is not to be measured solely by its commercial extent. The principle of the conservation of food products by sterilization or pasteurization is of immense significance in the nutrition of man. ”

“ The majority are compelled by occupation, age, or health to remain indoors. For them nutritious, readily digested food is a requisite. The farmer or the fisherman can digest, even thrive upon, food which would be deadly for a woman working in a factory. ”