Importance Of Food Spoilage

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Food spoilage can be seen through a number of changes in smell, colour, taste and touch. Food spoilage is a disagreeable change in the food’s normal state. Food can spoil due to various reasons.

Oxygen:
Air is made up of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and a 1% mixture of other gases. It is essential for life but because it is colourless, odorless and tasteless it is often forgotten that it can cause food to spoil and have a deteriorative effect on fats, food colours, vitamins, flavours and other food components

Microorganisms:
There are different types of microorganisms. Aerobes (bacteria that require oxygen to grow), anaerobes (bacteria that grow in the absence of oxygen) and facultative anaerobes (bacteria that can grow under either condition). …show more content…

This leads to food spoilage. There are many oxidizing enzymes. Catalase and peroxidase are two kinds of enzymes that cause darkening in sliced and diced vegetables. The browning of vegetables caused by these enzymes comes with off-flavours and odors.

Oxygen:
Oxygen provides conditions that will enhance the growth of microorganisms ans cause damage to food with the help of enzymes. It can also cause food to spoil by itself. It can cause oxidation. Short chain carbon compounds are formed when lipids oxidize and theses compounds have strong and undesirable odors and flavours. The off-odors and sharp and acrid and can smell a bit fishy or perfume-like.

Moisture:
Water is present in all foods as percent water and influences the appearance, texture and flavour of the food. Water is essential in all food. 70% of the weight of unprocessed foods is water and even dry foods such as green beans contain some water. Fresh fruits and vegetables contain the most water- between 90% and 95% water. The amount of water in different fruits and vegetables is shown below:
Apples

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