In winter, conservation is especially important when the counters with fresh products are filled with rare overseas fruits, which are often not the most useful ones due to long storage and transportation. Canned food is especially popular in the cold season – most of them can be consumed immediately, stored for a long time and conveniently, and cost relatively little.
Canning is also done at home; freezing is also a way to preserve foods with a small loss of their vitamin composition. What are canned foods and are they as useful as we used to think?
Preservation is a way to preserve a product so that it does not spoil and is stored for a long time. Such products are thermally processed, then pasteurized, sterilized and sealed in an airtight container.
Sterilized canned food is heated to the boiling point, and pasteurized – up to a maximum temperature of 80 degrees.
It is customary to preserve fruits and berries by sugaring, vegetables – pickling, sourdough and pickling. Fruit is also used to make juices and purees using salt and sugar. The meat is preserved by freezing a fresh product or preserving a ready-made one, fish and seafood are frozen raw, half-cooked or preserved with oil and salt.
Canned food helps to compensate for the lack of raw materials at a time when fresh food is not available. But this replacement is not considered equivalent.
During sterilization, not only microbes die, but the nutritional value of the products is also lost. During pasteurization, only vitamin C is destroyed, but the likelihood of getting rid of bacteria completely is small.
At the same time, canned foods are not considered empty – they contain proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, fatty acids and oils, vitamins and trace elements. Canned fish are especially useful, since it is not always possible and skillful to cook rare expensive fish.
What are the risks of eating canned foods?
- Due to the meager set of vitamins, eating mainly canned food, you can get vitamin deficiency.
- Canned meat or fish may contain bacteria that cause botulism. Toxins damage the human nervous system and can lead to death.
- Canned food is often affected by fungi – mold. And even if there is little mold, the entire contents of the jar are not edible.
How to choose good canned food
- For starters, take a familiar and, importantly, proven brand of canned food. Well-known brands comply with all cooking and preservation technologies. Spins from spontaneous markets are not the best choice.
- Study the label carefully. The canned food must contain the product itself and the declared preservative, the expiration date must correspond to the date, and, ideally, there must be no synthetic preservatives.
- Check the jar for damage, swelling, bumps. A damaged jar may contain harmful microorganisms.
- When you open a can, nothing should alert you – neither the sound, nor the smell, nor the type of contents. If something confuses you, it is better to refrain from using this product.