The preservation and storage of food

Everyone cares about the food health and safe problems and prefers to read the labels of foods. When faced with a longer shelf life foods, customers’' first reaction is there must be a lot of preservatives in the food. But, there are many food does not contain preservatives, such as sugar, honey, canned foods and frozen foods.

Experts explain food preservatives are added to avoid microbial (bacterial or fungal) growth to lead to food spoilage. Microbial growth requires nutrients, water, proper temperature and acidity. If any of them does not meet the requirements for microbial growth, microbial will not be able to reproduce. so some people may use drying, salting, sugaring, low temperature, filling method to deal with microbial. As I have said before, my grandma likes to preserve food by using salt. Then, we can enjoy the food for a whole winter without fridge. Of course, microbes which can cause food spoilage can't grow below below-18 Celsius. Therefore, most of the frozen food at low temperatures storage can solve the food spoilage problems, but long-term low temperatures preserves cannot change the results of food spoilage. During the low temperature storage, fats or protein is oxidized, the food flavor will gradually deteriorate. As a result, the frozen food need to be consumed as soon as possible within the warranty period.

By the way, the freezing process of household refrigerator is different from factory "frozen", it was unable to bring the temperature down to-18 c, especially too many things in the fridge will further reduce frozen rate. At this time, bacterial breed can damage the food flavor. So, compared to industrial production food, homemade food should eat as quickly as possible and not be kept in refrigerator for a long time. According to this qualified products are safer than the homemade foods.

When it refers to ice creams, some people may say there are thousands of food additives in the ice creams. Sweeteners, sour agents and flavors are responsible for seasoning; emulsifiers and thickening agents are responsible for "shaping"; pigment is responsible for coloring. In fact, adding a number of food additives is a normal phenomenon, they also guarantee the ice cream taste and shape. If the food additives meet the standard, there's no need to worry about them. Sugar and milk in ice cream, freezing temperature and the required storage environment is lower than -18 ℃, but household refrigerators can not reach the needed temperature. The ice creams bought from the supermarket may occur the high temperature softening and the freezing process, the flavor may change and even pathogen will bury a safety hazard. So customers should not purchase too much ice creams for storage, and they'd better eat up the ice creams in the refrigerators as soon as possible.

Emulsifiers improve and stabilize nature of different food

In order to reduce the effects of differences in raw materials and optimize the production process, different methods of adding food additives are used. Such as emulsifier, it is not the only means to achieve these requirements, but it is one of the very important way.

Nowadays food must cater to a wide variety of fast paced lifestyle. Due to the busy lives, consumers not only need quick, convenient and easy to prepare food, but also need its delicious taste. In order to guarantee consistently high quality and wide range of applications, emulsifier plays an important role in this issue.

Some well known emulsifiers are approved can be used in food. Lecithin is derivatives of Glycerin and phosphoric acid ester - glycerol phosphatides. Main application of lecithin is in chocolates, baked goods and mayonnaise production. Glycerol-polyethylene ricinoleate PGPR (E476) is mainly used in the production of chocolates and candies.

Another important emulsifier is diacylglycerol (E471). Their synthesis is very simple: different fatty acid reacts with excess Glycerin purification. Monoglycerides are widely used in all kinds of industrial food production. As a basis for many special types of emulsifiers, organic/natural fatty acid are many. For example, with acetic acid esterification to form acetic acid glycerol ester - ACETEM. Polyoxyethylene water sorbitol monoglyceride (E433) is a very promising and effective emulsifying agent. However, it is only approved for use in beverage and cannot be used for other foods in some European countries.

Emulsifiers play a stable role in the production, storage and consumption. What' s more, they affect uniformity, viscosity and structure features in food production, most importantly, they can often change the taste of food. Even some emulsifiers can extend the shelf life of the product.

Everyone eat bread in the daily life, and emulsifiers mainly interact with the two ingredients of flour - starch and gluten. The aging of bread is mainly caused by the loss of starch, but add monoglycerides, SSL and CSL, can slow down the aging process so as to extend the shelf life of bread. Another two important advantages of emulsifying agent are increase the volume of bread and makes the bread soft.

You may not know emulsifying agents in the complex ice cream making process have many functions. A typical ice cream has five different two-phase systems: well dispersed cellulite; dispersed well and very small bubbles of bubble; colloidal solutions of milk proteins; carbohydrates and solution of minerals and suspension of crystals.

As a result, emulsifying agents are widely used in food. Emulsifiers improve and stabilize nature of different food, then the food is more delicious and high quality.

The Use Of Food Emulsifier

We like to pay attention to the color, aroma, taste, form and structure of food, but harmless and nutritional is also important. As a food additive, safety is the most important condition, then is the process and performance. Therefore, the general requirements for food additives and their usage are:

1 The toxicological assessment on food safety should be fully proved. Make sure that the food additives are nonpoisonous and harmless to the human body in the limited long-term ingestion. 

2 Food additives would be involved in the body's normal metabolism, or it can be excreted out totally by a normal process of detoxification detoxify. They can not be broken down in the human body or have effects with food ingredients to form harmful or poisonous substances. 

3 Food additives should have strict hygiene standards and quality standards.

4 Food additives should not destroy the nutritional ingredients of food, as well as the quality and flavor of food.

5 Food additives should be helpful to the food production, processing, fabrication and storage processes. It needs to keep food nutrition, prevent food spoilage, enhance food sensory properties, improve product quality and has a significant effect  at a relatively low usage conditions.

No matter it is natural or synthetic food additives, they are essentially chemicals. Different food additives belongs to different types of chemical substances, and emulsifying agent is widely used in food processing. Emulsion agent can stable the food physical state, improve food organization structure and extend shelf life. Some common food ingredients are mutually not compatible and uneven mix of each component that leads to the food oil-water separation. But food emulsifying agent can solve these problems or phenomena. 

The amphiphilic character of emulsifier molecules, it can have specific interactions with food carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, etc. With the development of the food industry and the diversity of processed food, countries around the world have attached great importance to the development of food emulsifier in research, production and application. Nowadays, food emulsifiers are serialized, versatile, efficient, easy to use.

The variety of food emulsifiers is relatively stable, but the endless new foods and new food processing technology is more and more. From the viewpoint of ease of use, food emulsifying agents are transitioned from bulk products to the powder or liquid products. With the development of the food processing industry, food emulsifier application has a great development. Due to the developed food industry and the large proportion of meat products and dairy products, so the use amount and variety of food emulsifier is more and more. Article source: http://okfoodadd.blogspot.hk/2015/09/what-is-guar-gum.html.

What is Guar Gum?

Guar gum is a natural food thickener and a traditionally cultivated plant in  the northern regions of India and Pakistan. Guar in India is drought resistant and is very hardy. Guar gum is extracted from the legumes-Guar. The molecular weight of guar gum is the largest one in all natural water soluble polymers. Guar gum in fact is not just a thickening agent, but a binder and emulsifiers as well. Guar gum has the natural ability to bind with water molecules, preventing them from forming the unwanted crystals.

White to yellowish brown powder. It disperses in hot or cold water to form the viscous liquid and is the highest viscosity of natural rubber. 1% aqueous solution viscosity of about 4-5Pa • s. It transformed into gels when add a small amount of sodium tetraborate. The viscosity changes with the change of PH value.

Application of guar gum in food industry:

1 It used as stability agent in ice cream.

2 It prevent noodles from bonding, water retention and increasing flexibility, and it maintains excellent quality and extend shelf life.

3 It is water retention and thickening stabilizer when applied to beverages such as peanuts milk, orange juice, fruit tea.

4 It can increase the volume in meat products such as sausages, lunch meat, meat balls.

5 It can reduce spills, control consistency and prevention of fat transfer in baby food and canned food.

As a food additive, the safety of guar gum has been recognized by the World Health Organization. Guar gum contains several nutrients, and common microorganisms can grow and reproduce in it. If you want to use the configured guar gum solution for a period of time, you must make a good anti-corrosion measures. The molecular structure of guar gum changes more, its resistance to microbial invasion is greater. Tests showed that in terms of resistance to microbial invasion the derivative of guar gum is far more than the guar gum. Practice also shows that the derivative of guar gum can keep the solution longer stability and good quality. As a result, the derivative of guar gum can inhibit the growth of bacteria, and these bacteria can destroy the stability of guar gum solution and reduce the quality of solution.

Because of the low price and the stable source, guar gum has been widely used in food industry. In recent years, the dispersion, viscosity and solution transparency of guar gum has been rapidly risen by the chemical modification. The study and development of the derivative of guar gum makes it becomes an important composition in the production of guar gum. Source: http://okfoodadd.blogspot.hk/2015/09/edible-gelatin-and-industrial-gelatin.html.

Edible Gelatin And Industrial Gelatin

Gelatin is a huge no-no to a vegetarian. Because it is a substance derived from the boiling of animal hooves or the processing of animal collagen. Gelatin is 90 percent protein and supplies you with 18 amino acids. Edible gelatin is tasteless beige or pale yellow powder or granul.

People may concerned about the safety use of gelatin. First you should figure out the knowledge of industrial gelatin and edible gelatin. Of course, they both are protein. The raw material of edible gelatin is derived from fresh animal skins or bones. While industrial gelatin is derived from leather scraps, and other raw materials. Edible gelatin is without chemical treatments, the process of animal skins is ingredients fresh, thus the raw materials of boiled rubber is health. Industrial gelatin does not belong to the category of food additives, their products contain excessive heavy metals or residues chemical composition like  arsenic, mercury, lead and other, certainly it is not edible.

The use of edible gelatin:

In food industry, edible gelatin is used as a thickener, a gelling agent, a stabilizer and an emulsifier. As a good source of protein, gelatin has also been said to strengthen nails and hair. It is widely used in foodstuff, such as freezing meat, yogurt, marshmallows, gummy candy,  and soups. Edible gelatin is also widely used in pharmaceuticals, it has ideal nutritional value to child.

Edible gelatine is a kind of food additive, gar, konjac, carrageenan, xanthan gum, guar gum, sodium alginate, etc are edible gelatine. The popular gummy candy has pectin and gelatin; the primary composition of jelly is carrageenan. Will manufacturers add excessive gelatin to pursue the taste? In fact it is no need to do so. Then, add excessive gelatin may cause more consistency. It does not taste good with more gelatin. According to different food, the use quantity is different.

Industrial gelatin is refined from leather and not edible, food with industrial gelatin can be detected by heavy metals. Industrial gelatin does not belong to food additives, and the raw material cost is very low. The price of industrial gelatin is lower than the food gelatin.

Collagen is the necessary nutrients of human body anti-aging, collagen is about at least 30% of total body protein. An adult body has about 3 kg of collagen. It is widely found in human skin, bone, muscle, cartilage, bone, hair. It plays triple-anti-aging roles of supporting, fixing, protection. Article source: https://okfoodadd.wordpress.com/2015/09/09/spices-make-the-food-different/.

Don't refuse food additives

Do you think food without food additives is fashion, green, healthy? At present, citizens still have some misunderstanding about the food additive. Think about that will you want to eat your food if it without any color, any flavor and any aroma, will you want to eat it? And in some ways, food additives play a huge role in preservation, corrosion protection and other functions. It has even been considered that there is no modern food industry if without food additives. While, people have some misunderstandings on additives.

"illegal additives" is not equivalent to food additives

People should make sure what are additives and what are food additives. Like Sudan, melamine, Malachite Green, formaldehyde is chemical raw materials instead of food additives, these non-food additives is strictly prohibited to add to food. The misunderstanding of illegal additives and food additives leads to some reasonable food additives added to food strictly subject to great effect.

Many people believe that consumption of foods containing food additives may have an impact on health, but in fact is not the case. Food additives are important material used in the foods production process, it can improve the food color, aroma and taste so as to meet the needs of consumers. If life without food additives, what you will want to eat? Appropriate use of food additives are safe, but excessive use is harmful. Therefore, every State has stringent health standards and quality standards to the allowed to use food additives. Use in the specified food, the variety and scope of use without permission are prohibited.

Is natural additives safe or synthetic additives safe?

Food additive is a synthetic or natural material for improving the quality and flavor of food and the need to preserve the food.  Almost all processed foods basically contain food additives. Most people think that as long as it is natural that is very safe, the synthesis must be unsafe. In fact, this view is wrong.

Role of food additives in foods is varied. For example, preservatives can play a role in preventing corruption; water retention agent can make the meat tender. The use of variety food additives can significantly improve the quality of food, and make the food more easily acceptable to the consumer. Many people think that preservatives in foods is a threat to human health, but some food without preservatives may cause bacteria infested, that is a threat to human health. Therefore, in order to inhibit microbial activity and prevent food spoilage, adding appropriate preservatives in food is a must.

The consumption of pigment in developed countries is huge. According to statistics, Americans eat 4.5 grams of color a year, the British eat 3.5 grams of pigment a year. But the country's cancer was not increased significantly in nearly 30 years. Therefore, scientists believe that the majority of food additives are safe and reliable. Only a few are carcinogens, and have been disabled. Source: http://okfoodadd.blogspot.com/2015/09/food-bulking-agent-makes-your-bread.html.