Food Processing

Posted by montuert_gm |

TOOLS & EQUIPMENT

Burger Presses + Accessories

Canning Equipment

Choppers

Cooking Stoves + Burners

Food Dehydrators

Fruit Crushers, Juicers + Wine Presses

Fry Cutters

Griddles, Pots + Skillets

Grills + Accessories

Grinders + Grain Mills

Marinators

Meat Saws

Mixers + Tenderizers

Novelty

Outdoor Fryers, Roasters + Accessories

Slicers

Smokers + Accessories

Steak Knives

Stuffers

Food processing is the set of methods and techniques used to transform raw ingredients into food or to transform food into other forms for consumption by humans or animals either in the home or by the food processing industry. Food processing typically takes clean, harvested crops or butchered animal products and uses these to produce attractive, marketable and often long shelf-life food products. Similar processes are used to produce animal feed.

Food preservation is the process of treating and handling food to stop or greatly slow down spoilage (loss of quality, edibility or nutritive value) caused or accelerated by micro-organisms. Some methods, however, use benign bacteria, yeasts or fungi to add specific qualities and to preserve food (e.g., cheese, wine). Maintaining or creating nutritional value, texture and flavour is important in preserving its value as food. This is culturally dependent, as what qualifies as food fit for humans in one culture may not qualify in another culture.

Preservation usually involves preventing the growth of bacteria, fungi, and other micro-organisms, as well as retarding the oxidation of fats which cause rancidity. It also includes processes to inhibit natural ageing and discolouration that can occur during food preparation such as the enzymatic browning reaction in apples after they are cut. Some preservation methods require the food to be sealed after treatment to prevent contamination with microbes; others, such as drying, allow food to be stored without any special containment for long periods.
Common methods of applying these processes include drying, spray drying, freeze drying, freezing, vacuum-packing, canning, preserving in syrup, sugar crystallisation, food irradiation, and adding preservatives or inert gases such as carbon dioxide. Other methods that not only help to preserve food, but also add flavour, include pickling, salting, smoking, preserving in syrup or alcohol, sugar crystallisation and curing.

PRESERVED FRUITS