Food preservation during ancient times

Food preservation is as old as human civilization. Preservation of foods inhibits spoilage cause by bacterial growth, oxidation, insects or desiccation.

Drying, smoking curing or salting by application of a dry granular salt and pickling or combination of these processes were applied to foodstuffs.

The earliest recorded instances of food preservation date back to ancient Egypt and the drying of grains and subsequent storage in seal silos.

Fermentation beverages were ubiquitous in the earliest civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Not only did wine facilitate conviviality, it was usually more potable than the available water. The Chinese reportedly preserved vegetables by fermentation in prehistoric times and Plinius preserved white cabbage in earthenware pots in Italy in the first century AD.

Refrigeration in caves or under cool water were also well known ancient techniques of food preservation. But the potential of this particular food preservation technique was not fully realized until the 1900’s when Clarence Birdseye introduced frozen foods to the American public.

People in many parts of the world developed techniques for drying and smoking foods as far as 6000 BC. Microorganisms need water to carry out their metabolic processes.

Smoking not only dries the food but it also changes its taste by decomposition of the fats and so often avoids the use of spices. It was used by the German tribes and even by the Romans in historic times, Pope Zacharias (8th century AD) warned Boniface to stick to boiled or smoked bacon and pork during his travels amongst the heathen tribes.

Ancient Mesoamericans used salt as a preservative for trade in fish and other food stuff over long distances, as well as for storing food for long periods of time.

Since Phoenician times (from around 1250 BC) the standard practice for preserving fish was to gut it, dry it and pack it in layers with salt.
Food preservation during ancient times  

Food irradiation in history

The generic term ‘irradiation’ appears in the literature only until the 1940s.

Food irradiation history began when the discovery of x-ray by Roentgen in 1805 and radioactive substances by Becquerel in 1896.

Following these discoveries there was much research examining the effects of these irradiations on biological organisms.

In the same year H. Minsch from Germans published a proposal to use ionizing radiation to serve food by destroying spoilage microorganisms.

Soon thereafter, Samuel Prescott, a biology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, demonstrated that bacteria in food could be killed with gamma rays from radium.

Within a few years patents describing the use of ionizing to destroy bacteria in food were issued in both the United States and Britain.

The first patent on the proposition to apply ionizing to kill bacteria in foods was issued in the UK to Appleby and Banks in 1905.

The finding the ionizing radiation could destroy bacteria occurred in 1904, and the technology was evaluated as early as 1921 for destroying trichinae in pork.

However, radiation sources strong enough for industrial exploitation were not available before the 1950s.

However in the early 1950s, the US government became involve in the development of food irradiation and funded related research. The Atomic Energy Commission started sponsoring programs in 1950, followed by the IS Army in 1953.

In 1958, The Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is amended and defines sources of radiation intended for use in processing food as a new food additive.

The worldwide first food irradiation facilities became operational in Germany in 1957 for spices, but had to dismantle in 1959 when Germany banned food irradiation.

In 1986, FDA approves irradiation at specific doses to delay maturation, inhibit growth and disinfect foods, including vegetables and spices.

The Federal Meat Inspection Act also is amended to permit gamma radiation in control Trichinella spiralis in fresh or previously frozen pork.
Food irradiation in history

Food preservation during ancient time

Food preservation is as old as human civilization. Preservation of foods inhibits spoilage cause by bacterial growth, oxidation, insects or desiccation.

Two staples of the ancient armies, wine and beer, were preserved for use as military rations. Some armies, the Sumerian and Egyptians preferred beer, while other Romans, Assyrians, Hittites and Germans preferred wine. Sealed properly in jars or wooden casks, wine could be kept for years.

The earliest recorded instances of food preservation date back to ancient Egypt and the drying of grains and subsequent storage in seal silos.

The stored grain could be kept for several years to insure against famine in case the Nile River flooded. 

People in many parts of the world developed techniques for drying and smoking foods as far as 6000 BC. Microorganisms need water to carry out their metabolic processes.

Smoking was known to the prehistoric inhabitants of Europe. This process not only dries the food but it also changes its taste by decomposition of the fats and so often avoids the use of spices.

It was used by the German tribes and even by the Romans in historic times.

Salting was so important in Roman life that Roman soldiers received “salarium,” or salt, as payment. This is the origin of today’s term, ‘salary.’

Ancient Mesoamericans used salt as a preservative for trade in fish and other food stuff over long distances, as well as for storing food for long periods of time.

Since Phoenician times (from around 1250 BC) the standard practice for preserving fish was to gut it, dry it and pack it in layers with salt. In Egypt, remains of food found in a tomb dating before 2000 BC included salted fish and a wooden container holding table salt.

Ancient peoples living in areas with cold winters would observe that frozen foods remained in good conditions almost indefinitely, whereupon humans developed rudimentary cold storage by cooling the recesses of caves and other shelters with ice and snow.

After the collapse of the ancient societies, the knowledge of food preservation for military rations was mostly lost and not rediscovered by modern armies until the nineteenth century, when it began to be preserved in tins and other methods of storage.
Food preservation during ancient time