Limitation of preservation techniques

Preservation techniques that limit the availability of water such as drying, salting, and smoking and those that use heat, such as canning and pasteurization, dramatically alter the nature of the food itself.

Food preservation factors, such as temperature, water activity Aw, pH etc., constitute environmental stresses to bacteria. If the stress is mild, it causes only injury to bacteria and if it is severe, it causes inactivation.

These processes degrade the color, flavor, texture and nutrients in food. Today’s consumers want their food to appear fresh and natural, as close to pick or just slaughtered as possible.

Despite all the attempts to extend the shelf life of a food product as carefully as possible to keep the nutritional and organoleptic properties and despite the progress that has been made, consumers remain skeptical, particularly regarding the use of preservative in food.

They don’t want preservatives and other chemicals added to their foods, and at the same time they want convenience.

Poor sensory quality is considered to be most limiting factor in the consumer acceptance and industrial application of preserved products. Sensory problems include excessive dehydration, undesirable color changes, and the development of flat and of flavors.

Consumers wants freshness of a product. A number of new techniques are in use or in development that try to meet this demand for food with fresher, more natural qualities.


Any food technology will be utilized only when it shows advantages in terms of effectiveness, public health cost, convenience, etc over competing technologies.

There are several methods of applying electricity instead of heat to pasteurize food; this techniques are referred to as cold pasteurization. Irradiation, ohmic heating and high intensity pulsed electric fields are some of these technique.
Limitation of preservation techniques