Food preservation is one of the fundamental processes of transformation Agri-food
that has as its primary purpose the preservation of edibility over time
and the nutritional value of a food product, preventing accidental alterations
and limiting over time the scope of the inevitable and unstoppable transformations that food
undergoes over time, in accordance with the First Law of Parisi of Food Degradation.

In the framework of applied technologies it is placed as a field of study and application
of the canning technique, which traditionally joins the fundamental branches of
agricultural industries (wine industry, dairy industry, oil mill).

Conservation aims to preserve the intrinsic properties of the food
allowing its use to be spread over time. In this area, conservation is one.
The technology adopted to make the food usable as it is over a period of time
that goes from a few days to a few years.
An emblematic example is the preservation of drinking milk: freshly milked milk
is a food that does not require any transformation, however it is subject to alterations Microbial
that within a few hours make it inedible due to the increase
of the pathogenic microbial load; the industrial transformation processes of drinking milk
have the fundamental purpose of preserving its edibility and making it usable from a distance
of a few days or a few months.

As a side process, conservation aims to preserve
the technological properties of the product intended for physical transformation or transport.
In this context, conservation is a secondary technology adopted as
integrated phase to support a transformation process that goes beyond temporal purposes.
An emblematic example is the conservation of milk intended for cheesemaking:
the pathogenic charge of the milk, in this case, has a secondary importance as it will be
destroyed by the cheesemaking process; however the bioburden will take effect
on the commodity value of the raw material; in this case, refrigeration, for example,
is intended to limit the loss of technological value of the product during the phases
Stopover in the farm, transport to the dairy and waiting storage
of the cheesemaking process.
The main effort is aimed at stopping or at least slowing down the deterioration
of substances and therefore to prevent the phenomena of food poisoning.
Traditional methods such as cooling and salting are joined by especially
in the production of cheeses and wines, more modern processes involving the addition
of catalyst microorganisms such as yeasts. In addition to the nutritional value, in the processes
of conservation, attention is also paid to the appearance and flavour, species
in market economies where these parameters provide added value to food. (source Wikipedia)



(selection 2023)