Food Preparation, Culinary Processing, Canning

Nutrition is a basic life process related to the reception, processing and assimilation of food from the environment, the proper growth and development of the body.

 

Food is a basic biological and social human need

Nutrition is a basic life process related to the reception, processing and assimilation of food from the environment, the proper growth and development of the body, necessary for building and renewing substances, cells and tissues, carrying out and regulating the vital functions of the body, as well as compensating for the energy consumed by it.

What is nutrition science?

Nutriology is called the complex science of food and human nutrition. In addition to being a basic biological process, nutrition is also a cultural and social phenomenon. From ancient times, when tribes gathered around the fire and, eating, made decisions, to this day, when the whole family sits at the table not only for dinner, but also to share the experiences of the day. Every holiday or other social activity or tradition involves a treat, a table and a meal.

Feeding the population

In developing countries and for part of the population in some of the developed countries, malnutrition is the main socio-economic and health problem. According to the International Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 800 million people suffer from hunger and malnutrition, which is more than 12% of the world's population.

Severe malnutrition in developing countries has a particularly adverse effect on children, whose energy and nutrient needs are approximately 2 times greater than adults. About 2/3 of the children in these countries are affected by hunger and malnutrition - early death, impaired health, disorders in physical and neuropsychological development.

Rapid population growth in developing countries has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in   food production, so nutritional difficulties often arise. Using demographic phenomena and existing difficulties, some economists and sociologists argue that hunger is a fatal consequence of the mismatch between population growth and food production. In reality, the main cause of hunger and malnutrition is social inequality in the distribution of goods.
Malnutrition diseases occur relatively less often in economically developed countries among certain strata of the population, most often in atypical forms (anorexia).

The intervention of technology in food production

At the same time, the possibilities for meeting the needs of food products at the expense of the achievements of science and technical progress are increasing. They are determined by a number of closely related factors, the most important of which are an increase in yields from agricultural crops and livestock productivity, expansion of cultivated areas, active use of the food resources of the seas and oceans, creation of artificial food ingredients. However, these "possibilities" of science and technology can turn out to be a double-edged sword. For example, GMOs increase yield and productivity by increasing their resistance to pests, pollution and frost, but they also threaten, for example, to uncontrollably occupy the territories of natural species and make them disappear. This is just one of many examples.

Consumption of refined products

The peculiarities of nutrition in the era of scientific and technical progress include: increased consumption of refined products with a high energy value, increase in the nutritional ration in terms of the relative share of canned products, consumption of products with a composition impaired by technological factors, simplification of the menu related to by shortening the time for preparing food at home and using semi-finished products, expanding public catering, using canned goods, non-traditional products, applying many and varied nutritional supplements. For a part of the population in economically developed countries, the overeating of refined carbohydrates and meat products is increasing, as a result of which, with increasing hypokinesia, the number of overweight and obese people and related problems is increasing. Obesity and its consequences deepen hypokinesia, help reduce vitality, and this is associated with a decrease in work capacity and labor productivity, with an increase in the incidence of temporary disability, and premature retirement due to disability of people of the creative age. According to literary statistics, obesity, depending on its degree, shortens life expectancy by 3.6 to 15 years.

 

PREMIUM CHAPTERS ▼

Culinary processing of food (PREMIUM)

Despite the many ways of culinary processing, food products change in more or less the same way at the end. Changes in plant products are related to changes in the cell envelope, cell content, loss of nutrients. Of interest is the softening of the cellulose envelope of the cells, which, however, does not lead to degradation in the body and absorption. What happens to nutrients during heat treatment? As for vegetable products, during cooking, a large part of the dry matter passes into the water-free amino acids, carbohydrates, organic acids, minerals, especially potassium, sodium, phosphorus, iron, copper, zinc, vitamin C. Thermolabile substances are almost completely destroyed. Although with legumes and cereals we have an increase in volume during cooking, the losses are about 10-13% for tryptophan,

About 30-40% of mass is lost in meat products. Total protein losses range from 2 to 7%. Only heat-labile amino acids are destroyed, which greatly reduces the biological value of the protein.

When boiling, many substances pass into the broth - amino acids, peptides, purines, creatine, creatinine, sugars, etc., minerals and vitamins. The more shredded the meat, the greater the losses.

As a heat culinary treatment, it seems that the best way is to roast, either on the grill or in a pan without fat. If boiled, the broth can be used from the point of view that the minerals and some amino acids passed into it can be used for food. However, it is not known whether the meat broth does not contain many of the poisons and harmful substances from the meat. However, in order to make full use of the substances contained in the products, we must adhere to one basic principle - the shortest possible heat treatment of the food.

Food preservation (PREMIUM)

Today, canned food is one of the most important foods. Primitive man was satisfied with the seasonal foods he met in his so far with nature, often starving to eat at the first opportunity to hunt, etc. Even today in some tropical countries there are tribes who do not they think about tomorrow. After consuming everything around their camp, they move to another place rich in food and in turn leave it after they have ravaged it. But this is possible only in tropical countries, where nature has blessed the inhabitants with eternal summer. In the temperate and northern countries, where there are strictly defined seasons with their favorable or unfavorable conditions for life, even the ancient man conceived the preservation of some foods from the summer season for the winter.
For the first time, this question was seriously and persistently raised in 1750 by Nicolas Apert, born in Chalons, France, who gave the initial idea to preserve fresh products. Apert had to fight hard to establish his theory. Finally, thanks to the brilliant results he obtained in preserving food, he was heard by the famous chemist Gay Lussac (1810). Thanks to Gay Lussac, the French government took notice of Apert's invention and published an article "Apert has invented the art of canning - with him they live in bottles spring, summer and autumn. The title clearly emphasizes that by applying Apert's method, all the qualities of the products are preserved, and with this he wants to emphasize that even the solar energy is preserved. According to Fai-Yung et al. in Russia, canning was written about for the first time in 1809. by Prof. V. I. Karazin, who initiated canning in hermetically sealed boxes. He has very persistently campaigned for the quality of the preserved products in this way. Since then, so much work has been done in the field of canning that today our workers and scientists confirm its technology, through which nothing changes in the composition, color, taste and appearance of the product. If there is any loss, it is perfectly insignificant. Naturally, we are talking about correct and purely scientific technology in the preparation of canned fruits and vegetables. For successful canning, it is necessary to know some rules that will help to accomplish this task, the most important of which is the composition of the water. He has very persistently campaigned for the quality of the preserved products in this way. Since then, so much work has been done in the field of canning that today our workers and scientists confirm its technology, through which nothing changes in the composition, color, taste and appearance of the product. If there is any loss, it is perfectly insignificant. Naturally, we are talking about correct and purely scientific technology in the preparation of canned fruits and vegetables. For successful canning, it is necessary to know some rules that will help to accomplish this task, the most important of which is the composition of the water. He has very persistently campaigned for the quality of the preserved products in this way. Since then, so much work has been done in the field of canning that today our workers and scientists confirm its technology, through which nothing changes in the composition, color, taste and appearance of the product. If there is any loss, it is perfectly insignificant. Naturally, we are talking about correct and purely scientific technology in the preparation of canned fruits and vegetables. For successful canning, it is necessary to know some rules that will help to accomplish this task, the most important of which is the composition of the water. it is perfectly insignificant. Naturally, we are talking about correct and purely scientific technology in the preparation of canned fruits and vegetables. For successful canning, it is necessary to know some rules that will help to accomplish this task, the most important of which is the composition of the water. it is perfectly insignificant. Naturally, we are talking about correct and purely scientific technology in the preparation of canned fruits and vegetables. For successful canning, it is necessary to know some rules that will help to accomplish this task, the most important of which is the composition of the water.

Preservation takes place in several ways: by drying, sugaring, salting, sterilizing, freezing and preserving by chemicals. With all methods of preservation, the products more or less lose their natural nutritional qualities, therefore the best method is the one that preserves the most nutrients and especially protective substances in the product. As food, canned goods are used especially in winter, when they are very valuable, because they bring variety to the daily food of man. Summer and autumn fruits and vegetables spoil quickly and do not last long enough to be preserved raw for the winter, when they are desperately needed as food, especially for children and the sick. For a long time, however, one question has occupied science and been the object of persistent research - the question of whether the preserved fruit or vegetable, mushrooms or meat, eggs or fish can replace the natural ones. Gourmets and patients were no less interested in this question. Today, it is already positively known that, if not completely, then at least partially, depending on the different methods of preservation, the product retains its nutritional value. The use of canned products is very convenient, and therefore, along with fruits and vegetables, today fish, eggs, poultry, meat, etc. are canned.

Preserving food by drying (most often in the sun) is a good and very common method of preservation. It preserves quite valuable qualities of the product, but cannot satisfy our needs and taste. The product acquires a peculiar appearance and taste, its structure is damaged and, in most cases, it is deprived of its vitamin content. The product preserved in this way is difficult to preserve, because the slightest moistening damages it. For some meat products, drying is a valuable and indispensable method of preservation (pastrami, sausages, fish, etc.).

Canning by salting always reduces to a greater or lesser extent the nutritional value of the preserved product. In Bulgaria, pickles and sauerkraut have become widespread and often save those who consume them from avitaminosis.

Freeze preservation with today's technology does not damage the structure, color and taste of the preserved product. Frozen fruits and vegetables fully retain their characteristic structure and nutritional qualities.

Preservation by heat sterilization at a temperature of 70 to 120°C is most suitable for preserving food products. Thus, when it comes to canned foods, it is usually understood foods obtained by sterilizing in cans or jars at high temperature. This method of preservation is most suitable for those foods that are normally preserved cooked, because under the created conditions of airless cooking in a sealed box or jar, the product retains its nutritional qualities. Vitamins and salts break down to a very small extent compared to cooking in a stir pot. Canned food can be a complete food that replaces a fresh vegetable. Those cans that are obtained from products placed and sealed in the boxes raw and cooked only afterwards (sterilized) are full-value. They retain almost all vitamins and salts, because the cooking takes place in a hermetically sealed vessel without access to oxygen, which destroys vitamins and many salts in the pot during ordinary cooking. If the vegetable or fruit under normal cooking conditions has to be boiled, it is more valuable because it retains much more nutritional qualities. Canned vegetables are a complete food not only because they replace the natural product, they even in some cases surpass it because they are cooked in the absence of air and therefore retain more nutritional elements than the natural one cooked in the presence of air. Canned food can also be of low value when the natural product can be stored for a long time and eaten raw - If the vegetable or fruit under normal cooking conditions has to be boiled, it is more valuable because it retains much more nutritional qualities. Canned vegetables are a complete food not only because they replace the natural product, they even in some cases surpass it because they are cooked in the absence of air and therefore retain more nutritional elements than the natural one cooked in the presence of air. Canned food can also be of low value when the natural product can be stored for a long time and eaten raw - If the vegetable or fruit under normal cooking conditions has to be boiled, it is more valuable because it retains much more nutritional qualities. Canned vegetables are a complete food not only because they replace the natural product, they even in some cases surpass it because they are cooked in the absence of air and therefore retain more nutritional elements than the natural one cooked in the presence of air. Canned food can also be of low value when the natural product can be stored for a long time and eaten raw - because they were cooked in the absence of air and therefore retained more nutritional elements than the natural cooked in the presence of air. Canned food can also be of low value when the natural product can be stored for a long time and eaten raw - because they were cooked in the absence of air and therefore retained more nutritional elements than the natural cooked in the presence of air. Canned food can also be of low value when the natural product can be stored for a long time and eaten raw -  such as apples, carrots, oranges and lemons. Ordinary cooked food are those cans that, after preliminary processing in the open air (frying, boiling and baking), are sealed and sterilized. These are all canned foods (various types of dishes). These cans have the qualities of food prepared in the ordinary way, but the valuable thing is that, after being sterilized, they are preserved for a long time without spoiling or losing their nutritional qualities. With the modern technique of canning fruits, vegetables and fish, the cans do not pose any danger to the consumer. If the can is unusable, its lid swells. If in a glass, the liquid should be clear and no bubbles have formed. The presence of bubbles indicates that chemical reactions have occurred in the can and its spoilage has occurred. The water or juice of the can contains everything most valuable in the can - dissolved vitamins and salts. Canned foods eaten in the form of a salad are especially valuable as food. In today's living conditions, canning should be one of the first concerns of the food industry.

 

The average consumer is bombarded daily with attractive offers for "healthy" foods and nutritional products, and usually has no time or opportunity to research and verify their veracity. Unfortunately, even nutritionists, who should be the conscience in this regard, rarely pay attention to the negative sides of the innovations, and sometimes they themselves are misled by advertising campaigns of the manufacturing companies and by false research data presented. The processing of food by various methods and the addition of synthetic ingredients such as preservatives, deodorizers, flavorings, colorings and others in order to acquire a more attractive taste and appearance, and longer storage, not only destroys their life-giving value, but also proves harmful effect after consuming them.