Preservatives

Opening up the door of your pantry, the wide variety of food makes your mouth water. But when thinking about it, what makes all that food last as long as it does? Food companies put PRESERVATIVES in their food to help slow down the growth of harmful bacteria and also to increase the shelf life of food items. Whether it's your favorite after school snack or fresh fruits and veggies that your parents make you eat, most food items contain preservatives.

Walk Through the Orchard

   Let's take a walk through an apple orchard, hundreds of rows of apple trees, and the shiny red fruit growing along the branches looking good enough to eat. But you're not the only thing that finds those apples appetizing, bacteria also would love to eat up these apples. To prevent that from happening farmers use preservatives called LIPOPEPTIDES (1). LIPOPEPTIDES decrease the growth of bacteria in plans while they're still in the growing stages (1). After the apples have been picked from the branches they move into the grocery store where they wait for you to buy them. 

    Once the apples are brought home from the store to keep the bright red color you place them in the refrigerator; keeping the fruit in a cool environment slows the growth of the bacteria that you don't want to be eating. The method of cooling food dates back to when cavemen roamed the Earth, they used snow or dug holes in the ground to keep their food cool (2). They also used the sun to dry out their foods, as well. 

Figure One. Retrieved from www.foodpyramid.com.

   You decide one day to slice up that juicy apple and pack it in your lunch bag, but when you sit down to eat lunch the apple slices don't look the same as they did this morning when you put them in the bag. The edges have become brown, like the one in the figure one. The insides of your apple had become oxidized, because when you sliced the apple open the insides were exposed to the air you breath. Not all foods do this when you cut it up because ANTIOXIDANTS are being used. ANTIOXIDANTS slows down the process of food spoilage (2). Now, farmers don't place these chemicals in their crops so the spoilage of fruits and veggies is faster than most other foods. 

Good Chemicals?

When thinking of the word chemical, you think of some mad scientist ready to blow something up. But most food preservatives are chemicals that are safe to eat and you won't blow up from them. Eating the bacteria that preservatives are slowing the growth of can cause serious damage to your body that can be permanent. Not only can these preservatives slow the growth of bacteria, so can storing your food properly at home. 

References

1) Meena, K.R., Kanwar, S.S., (2014). Lipopeptides as the Antifungal and Antibacterial Agents: Applications in Food Safety and Therapeutics. BioMed Research International, p. 6.

2)Nummer, B. A., (2002). Historical Origins of Food Preservation. National Center for Home Food Preservation. Retrieved from: http://nchfp.uga.edu/