I have been thinking a lot about food preservation because I just moved out on my own about three months ago (i’m nineteen) and I am finding out that an average person spends a hell of a lot of money due to the fact that various foods have to be stored in a certain way and go bad quickly even when stored properly, causing the person to buy smaller quantities of food at high prices. What is the root of food going bad? Is it air? If so I want to get a huge chamber like a fridge or something with a decompression system to suck all of the air out everytime the door is closed.
brocolli and spinach and fresh fruit and everything else should last a very long time in this kind of environment. What would be the best way to go about obtaining a device or something similar with the lowest cost in mind? And maybe even portable smaller devices for travel. Any information on this topic or anything related to the affects of air on food would be greatly appreciated.
Food goes bad because of bacteria and fungi that live on it and break it down*. There are also chemicals like ethylene that speed up ripening, which makes the food last a shorter amount of time. This is the idea behind the phrase “one bad apple spoils the bushel.” In this situation, one ripe apple gives off ethylene gas that can ripen the rest of the apples faster than they would if they were all fresh.
You can keep food longer by storing them in conditions that aren’t easy for most bacteria to thrive in through freezing it, sugaring it, drying it, pickling it, canning it, salting it (I feel like Bubba from Forrest Gump now, so I’m ending this list ) or putting it in an air tight container/bag. The food won’t last forever though, of course.
The idea of an airtight refrigerator probably isn’t practical. You can purchase a vacuum sealer like the food saver and use it to make food last longer though.
*other things like heat break food down too.
The Food Saver is pretty good at keeping food fresh longer, but eventually it will still go bad. I have a container that came with the Food Saver, and I often store strawberries in it. I’m quite surprised at how much longer they stay fresh in that then they do in their original container.
I have taken to double-wrapping frozen things with the Food Saver, though, because sometimes the bags are not well-sealed on the sides. I freeze stuff in a ziploc bag and then vacuum seal the zip bag into a Food Saver bag.