Question

What are food preservatives? Name two such substances.

Answer 1

Hint: As the name suggests, food preservatives refers to the preservation of food materials for a time being.

Complete step by step solution:
Preservatives are natural or man-made chemicals that are added to foods to stop them from spoiling. We preserve fresh foods every day, by storing foods in the fridge or freezer.
Smoking fish or meat over burning wood or coal are also methods of preservation. Many packaged foods we buy need a preserving agent to keep them from going off and to protect us against foodborne illnesses (food poisoning), which is why these preservatives are used.
Natural preservatives that can be added include salt and sugar.
A preservative is a substance that is added to food substances or beverages to prevent decomposition of microbes and to avoid chemical changes taking place undesirably. Food preservation is an ancient technique that is practised in different forms.
Food preservatives are basically done for three reasons;
1. To preserve the natural characteristics of food
2. To preserve the appearance of food
3. To increase the shelf value of food for storage.
Types of food preservatives-
Natural food preservatives-
Salt is the best natural food preservation method which efficiently drops the growth of bacteria in food. For meat and fish preservation, salt is used as a natural food preservative.
Other natural preservatives in the category are sugar, alcohol and vinegar. These are used for preparing jams and pickles.

Note: Adding food preservatives has a negative effect on your health. Preservatives can transform themselves to carcinogenic agents which can cause cancer.