Question

Salt is used to preserve food by removing ……..from it.
A. Moisture
B. Microbes
C. Air
D. All of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Food preservation is a technique by which food is prevented from spoilage or their shelf life is increased. Various prehistoric and modern methods of food preservation exist that are based on preventing the food spoilage by growth of microorganisms that might destroy the food.

Complete Answer:
Exosmosis is a process by which the water molecules move outside the cell from a medium of higher concentration of water to lower concentration of water or when the cell is placed in a hypertonic solution.

Treatment with preservatives which are chemicals, heating at high temperatures, pasteurization, adding salt are some ways for food preservation.

Let us now analyze the options to find out the correct option.
Option A: The addition of salt in the food to be preserved removes the moisture from the food by the process of exosmosis. The presence of salt and no moisture prevents bacterial contamination and also their multiplication. So, the food does not get degraded for a longer period of time and their shelf life is increased.Therefore, this is the incorrect option.

Option B: Adding salt to the food does not help in the removal of microbes. It can prevent the contamination by microbes by removing the moisture from the food which is required for the growth of microbes.Therefore, this is the incorrect option.

Option C: Salt does not help in removal of air from the food. It only aids in removal of moisture from the food. Therefore, this is the incorrect option.

Option D: Since one of the above options is correct and others are not, this is the incorrect option.

Thus, the correct option is A) Moisture.

Note: Salting is one of the oldest methods which is used for the preservation of food. In this the food is soaked in salt or brine water. Salt absorbs all the moisture from the food thus removing the moisture from the food.