Food Storage & Preservation: How to Store Food Properly?

Storing and preserving food properly is crucial to ensure the texture, taste, and quality of food are not compromised at all. Preserving food the right way also prevents the growth of bacteria in food which can cause illness, and it’s essential for saving your money as you don’t want to spoil your grocery and replace it with new ones. Every household has its own method of storing food, such as putting fruits and vegetables in airtight silicone storage bags or canning certain foods.

However, there are plenty of methods that you can use to store and preserve food to ensure longevity and quality. The most common ones are listed below, read on!

Refrigeration

This method is the most common one out there as almost everyone puts their groceries in the fridge as soon as they get home. It also doesn’t require you to do anything extra than simply place the food in the refrigerator to keep it chilled.

However, this method is ideal for preserving food only for a few days/weeks, depending on the product.

You should label your food with expiration dates and use food on a “first in, first out” basis to prevent spoilage.

Freezing

This food storage and preservation method is also definitely not unusual for almost everyone. It’s ideal to slow down bacterial growth and keep food fresh for months or a maximum of a year. However, keeping it frozen for an extended period of time can affect the taste and quality of food.

Hence, labeling the food should be your best bet. Also, you should properly store it in the freezer by using airtight containers or freezer bags to prevent freezer burn, as this can dry out the food and make it unpleasant.

Drying

Drying can take out the moisture from food, therefore, significantly restricting bacterial growth, and it can make the size of food smaller as well to make storage a breeze for you. However, it’s important to note that this method works best for fruits, vegetables, and herbs.  

You can place food on a tray or paper sheet and let it dry in natural sunlight, or you can oven dry as well. This method obviously takes time and patience, as it may take up to ten hours for food to completely dry.

Salting

Salt is ideal for drawing out moisture from food, therefore, suppressing bacterial growth. You can simply put salt on food, like meat, and leave it to almost dry, or you can also make a liquid mix of salt and water and add food into it.

Nevertheless, it’s better to follow a salting method recipe online to ensure you do it the right way.

Canning

Canning requires you to boil the food, and you may have to also add an acidic liquid such as vinegar or lemon juice if the concentration isn’t acidic and finally add it into an airtight jar or container.

This method kills any pathogens and allows your food to remain fresh and tasty in the long run. However, it’s critical to follow a tested preservation recipe to make sure you add all the right amount of contents.

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