Lesser known natural food preservatives Increasing the shelf-life of the cooked food and preserving its colour, flavour, and nutrients intact has been a constant toil for the human beings from ages. By trial and error method over centuries, now we already know numbers of natural food preservatives that are efficient to hold the decaying of our food. Well, for that matter, with the advent of packaged food, even artificial preservatives have also made their ways to the market. But as rule of thumb we know that naturals always score over the artificials.
Amongst many, tiffin service providers are the one who are always on lookout for ways to keep their food fresh for longer and that too in a healthy way. In fact, I think that's quite a challenge, as they are the one who have to finely amalgamate the health quotient of their food along with the longetivity at the same time. The three vastly known and mostly used natural food preservatives, i.e. oil, salt, and sugar, most of the time don't come up to the help of the tiffin service providers as thanks to their large client-base with variety of people who may be suffering from different medical conditions like obesity, hyper-tension, diabetes etc. They have to serve healthy food as that is what their USP is but at the same time have to keep in mind that the food will not be consumed freshly just after preparation because it has to travel and then may has to wait for some more time before being consumed. Here are some lesser known natural food preservatives that may come in handy to save this situation. Check them out: •
Vinegar- Vinegar has high amount of acetic acid which kills and prevents the growth of microbes and thereby stops the food from decaying.
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Cloves- It contains high amount of phenolic compound that is known for the antioxidant properties. It prevents the growth of fungus and bacteria which are responsible for the food decay.
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Oregano- We mainly use this as flavouring agent but little did we know that it has preservative properties too. It is specially effective for preserving meat by acting as antibacterial and anti-fungal agent. But if you are not a lover of its flavour, then refrain from using it as it tend to distort the taste of the meat by imparting its own flavour to it.
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Cinnamom- Cinnamon can be used as a preservative apart from the flavouring agent. However, its effect is not equal on all types of bacteria i.e. it is effective in killing some specific kind of organisms only and therefore not a very lasting solution. But can be used in conjunction with other natural preservatives.
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Citric Acid- Citric acid is contained in the vegetables and fruits like lemon, peaches, plums, grapefruits and oranges. When procured naturally, they act as the best preservatives.
These natural preservatives can be either used singly or in conjunction and will allow you serve a healthy and tasty food that have a good shelf-life too. However, to obtain the maximum nutrients, it is always advisable to consume the food as early as possible after cooking.