The story of the lines of bottled fruit and tins of baked beans in your larder goes back to the

year
1795, in France. The French government maintained a vast army and navy; it was involved with
foreign wars, and revolution at home, and the troops had to be fed. To try and solve the problem
the French government offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could invent a method of
preserving food so that it would remain fresh and wholesome for long periods of time. For
fourteen years the prize remained unclaimed, then a Parisian confectioner named Nicolas
Appert, who had been experimenting with food all his life, produced a satisfactory method and
collected the prize in 1809 from the great Napoleon himself. M. Appert used wide-mouthed
glass jars into which he put the food, and heated them to drive out the air which he thought was
the cause of food deterioration. Finally, he closed the jars with tight-fitting corks to keep the
contents fresh. Soon, he was supplying bottled meats, milk, fruit and vegetables to the French
Navy- this was long before the great Pasteur made his momentous discovery regarding
bacteria. Nowadays, although far more is known about canning and food preservation, the basic
principle is the same as that used by Appert.
The next year, 1810, an Englishman, Peter Durand, used for the first time as a container a
metal canister, based on the design of the old tea canister- hence the word 'can'. The cans
frequently burst, however, because like Appert, Durand did not know the scientific principles
involved. Durand's hand-made cans were uneconomical, as only about sixty a day could be
made, whereas a modern machine makes over three hundred a minute.
The same year, in Bermondsey, London, Donkin and Hall formed the first English canning
company, which lasted as an independent firm for 54 years. Among other contracts, they
supplied the British Navy with canned meat. n 1817, another Englishman, William Underwood,
went to New Orleans to start a canning factory. At first, he was unsuccessful, but after several
attempts in various places, he eventually settled down in Boston, Massachusetts in 1819. There
he founded the first food preserving firm in America.
The first large-scale food preserving factory was founded at Baltimore, Chesapeake Bay, also
by an Englishman, Thomas Kensett, about 1840. Although he had been canning food since
1819, he is believed to have re-invented Appert's process without knowing anything about the
Frenchman's work. As Kensett's factory was on the coast, the products canned were mainly sea
foods- oysters, crabs, lobsters and various fish. Later, fruit and vegetables were canned in
addition. Gradually, other factories were built inland, where they could be in the crop-growing
areas.
During these early days there were many failures in canning techniques, and the canners had
great difficulty at first in overcoming the publics prejudice and reluctance to buy their products.
Canned food was regarded with suspicion, or as a luxury, for, naturally, because of the labor
costs, all canned foods were expensive. But foods canned under modern conditions are far less
likely to be as infected as real fresh foods; peas are usually picked and canned the same day,
thereby losing none of their nutritional value.
n 1857, a tremendous discovery was made that was destined to revolutionize the whole of the
canning industry. Louis Pasteur discovered that it was not air that destroyed the food, but
minute organisms called bacteria which are present in all natural foods. The bacteria
responsible for decomposition must be killed or their growth stopped if food is to be kept for any
length of time. n the canning process, the bacteria are killed by the application of heat to the
sealed tin.
When the American Civil War began in 1861, only about 5 million cans of all foods combined
were manufactured yearly. Because the armies were so large and consequently unable to live
adequately off the land, canned foods became almost essential, and something had to be done
to speed up the canning process. Up to this time, boiling water had been used for heating the
cans, but it was found that by adding calcium chloride to the water the temperature could be
brought up to 240F and more. The cooking process was thus reduced from five or six hours to
half an hour. Cooking the cans in boiling oil was another way of securing higher degrees of
heat, but the waste of precious time taken to clean them before they were labeled and
dispatched was the serious disadvantage of this method. By the end of the Civil War it is
estimated that production had increased by about 600%.
A little before this date, in 1860, were laid the foundations of what was to become one of the
world's greatest manufacturers of canned and bottled foods. A young man of sixteen, full of
energy and ideas, one day had a brainwave. The vegetable horseradish grew in the garden of
his home in Sharpsburg, in the U.S.A., and he had the idea that dried and grated horseradish
would save the time, and tears, of local housewives. He grew a large crop, and bottled the
prepared product. Up to this time, the regular manufacturers had used dark green glass bottles
for their products, so that it was very difficult to judge the quality of the contents by merely trying
to look through the glass. n those days, many of the makers used to put in bits of turnip,
beetroot and other odds and ends to fill up the bottles. Not so our bright young man, he used
clear glass containers to enable the grocer, and his customer, to see that his product was pure
horseradish. Pure, clean horseradish, that was the keynote. The business became so
successful that a company was formed in 1869 and new quarters were later established in
Pittsburgh. The young man's name was Henry John Heinz.



Historical Origins of Food Preservation
Introduction
The astonishing fact about food preservation is that it permeated every culture at
nearly every moment in time. To survive ancient man had to harness nature. In
frozen climates he froze seal meat on the ice. In tropical climates he dried foods in
the sun.Food by its nature begins to spoil the moment it is harvested. Food
preservation enabled ancient man to make roots and live in one place and form a
community. He no longer had to consume the kill or harvest immediately, but
could preserve some for later use. Each culture preserved their local food sources
using the same basic methods of food preservation.
Drying
In ancient times the sun and wind would have naturally dried foods. Evidence
shows that Middle East and oriental cultures actively dried foods as early as 12,000
B.C. in the hot sun. Later cultures left more evidence and each would have
methods and materials to reflect their food supplies-fish, wild game, domestic
animals, etc.Vegetables and fruits were also dried from the earliest times. The
Romans were particularly fond of any dried fruit they could make. In the Middle
Ages purposely built "still houses were created to dry fruits, vegetables and herbs
in areas that did not have enough strong sunlight for drying. A fire was used to
create the heat needed to dry foods and in some cases smoking them as well.
Freezing
Freezing was an obvious preservation method to the appropriate climates. Any
geographic area that had freezing temperatures for even part of a year made use
of the temperature to preserve foods. Less than freezing temperatures were used
to prolong storage times. Cellars, caves and cool streams were put to good use for
that purpose.In America estates had icehouses built to store ice and food on ice.
Soon the "icehouse became an "icebox. In the 1800s mechanical refrigeration
was invented and was quickly put to use. Also in the late 1800s Clarence Birdseye
discovered that quick freezing at very low temperatures made for better tasting
meats and vegetables. After some time he perfected his "quick freeze process and
revolutionized this method of food preservation.
Fermenting
Fermentation was not invented, but rather discovered. No doubt that the first beer
was discovered when a few grains of barley were left in the rain. Opportunistic
microorganisms fermented the starch-derived sugars into alcohols. So too can be
said about fruits fermented into wine, cabbage into Kim chi or sauerkraut, and so
on. The skill of ancient peoples to observe, harness, and encourage these
fermentations are admirable. Some anthropologists believe that mankind settled
down from nomadic wanderers into farmers to grow barley to make beer in roughly
10,000 BC. Beer was nutritious and the alcohol was divine. It was treated as a gift
from the gods.Fermentation was a valuable food preservation method. It not only
could preserve foods, but it also created more nutritious foods and was used to
create more palatable foods from less than desirable ingredients. Microorganisms
responsible for fermentations can produce vitamins as they ferment. This produces
a more nutritious end product from the ingredients.
Pickling
Pickling is preserving foods in vinegar (or other acid). Vinegar is produced from
starches or sugars fermented first to alcohol and then the alcohol is oxidized by
certain bacteria to acetic acid. Wines, beers and ciders are all routinely
transformed into vinegars.Pickling may have originated when food was placed in
wine or beer to preserve it, since both have a low pH. Perhaps the wine or beer
went sour and the taste of the food in it was appealing. Containers had to be made
of stoneware or glass, since the vinegar would dissolve the metal from pots. Never
ones to waste anything our ancestors found uses for everything. The left over
pickling brine found many uses. The Romans made a concentrated fish pickle sauce
called "garum. It was powerful stuff packing a lot of fish taste in a few
drops.There was a spectacular increase in food preservation in the sixteenth
century owing to the arrival in Europe of new foods. Ketchup was an oriental fish
brine that traveled the spice route to Europe and eventually to America where
someone finally added sugar to it. Spices were added to these pickling sauces to
make clever recipes. Soon chutneys, relishes, piccalillis, mustards, and ketchups
were commonplace. Worcester sauce was an accident from a forgotten barrel of
special relish. It aged for many years in the basement of the Lea and Perrins
Chemist shop.
Curing
The earliest curing was actually dehydration. Early cultures used salt to help
desiccate foods. Salting was common and even culinary by choosing raw salts from
different sources (rock salt, sea salt, spiced salt, etc.). In the 1800s it was
discovered that certain sources of salt gave meat a red color instead of the usual
unappetizing grey. Consumers overwhelmingly preferred the red colored meat. In
this mixture of salts were nitrites (saltpeter). As the microbiology of Clostridium
botulinum was elucidated in the 1920s it was realized that nitrites inhibited this
organism.
Jam and Jelly
Preservation with the use of honey or sugar was well known to the earliest
cultures. Fruits kept in honey were commonplace. In ancient Greece quince was
mixed with honey, dried somewhat and packed tightly into jars. The Romans
improved on the method by cooking the quince and honey producing a solid
texture.The same fervor of trading with India and the Orient that brought pickled
foods to Europe brought sugar cane. In northern climates that do not have enough
sunlight to successfully dry fruits housewives learned to make preserves-heating
the fruit with sugar.
Canning
Canning is the process in which foods are placed in jars or cans and heated to a
temperature that destroys microorganisms and inactivates enzymes. This heating
and later cooling forms a vacuum seal. The vacuum seal prevents other
microorganisms from recontaminating the food within the jar or can.Canning is the
newest of the food preservations methods being pioneered in the 1790s when a
French confectioner, Nicolas Appert, discovered that the application of heat to food
in sealed glass bottles preserved the food from deterioration. He theorized "if it
works for wine, why not foods? In about 1806 Appert's principles were
successfully trialed by the French Navy on a wide range of foods including meat,
vegetables, fruit and even milk. Based on Appert's methods Englishman, Peter
Durand, used tin cans in 1810.Appert had found a new and successful method to
preserve foods, but he did not fully understand it. It was thought that the exclusion
of air was responsible for the preservations. It was not until 1864 when Louis
Pasteur discovered the relationship between microorganisms and food
spoilage/illness did it become clearer. Just prior to Pasteurs discovery Raymond
Chevalier-Appert patented the pressure retort (canner) in 1851 to can at
temperatures higher than 212F. However, not until the 1920s was the
significance of this method known in relation to Clostridium botulinum.
Conclusion
Some historians believe that food preservation was not only for sustenance, but
also cultural. They point to numerous special occasion preserved foods that have
religious or celebratory meanings. In America more and more people live in cities
and procure foods commercially. They have been removed from a rural self-
sufficient way of life. Yet, for many, a garden is still a welcome site. And, annually
there exists a bounty crop of vegetables and fruits. It is this cultural nature of
preserved foods that survives today. Interests have shifted from preserve "because
we have to, to "preserve because we like to.
Medieval Food Preservation
Medieval Food Preservation
It was important Ior the Medieval people oI the Middle Ages to preserve Iood in the summer to be eaten
during during the winter months. Foods which could not be preserved were only eaten when they were in
season. It was not economic to keep and Ieed animals during the winter so animals were slaughtered in
the autumn. The meat during the Medieval times oI the Middle Ages was preserved in salt. Some
historians believe that pepper was also used in Iood preservation during the Medieval times oI the Middle
Ages, however pepper was even more expensive than salt that its use Ior such a purpose must have been
extremely limited.
The use of Salt in Medieval Food Preservation
There were two methods oI Iood preservation using salt as a preservative. Dry-salting where the meat or
Iish was buried in salt and brine-curing where meat was soaked in salt water. Each year households
prepared tubs oI a thick saline bath and undertook to preserve Iresh meats Ior the coming winter. The
problem was that any Iood preserved in salt had a constant salt taste. Methods were thereIore introduced
to disguise the salty taste. Spices Iorm the East were added to cooking recipes. These spices included
Pepper, Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg, Ginger, SaIIron, Cardamom, Coriander, Cumin, Garlic, Turmeric,
Mace, Anise, Caraway and Mustard. Food was also served with a variety oI sauces which also disguised
the salt taste. Salted meats and Iish were generally rinsed in several changes oI liquid beIore they were
added to a dish.Methods and Techniques oI Medieval Food Preservation - Pickling, Gelatine,
SmokingThere were several other methods used during the process oI Medieval Iood preservation:
Pickling - Pickling in a salt brine was the standard method oI preserving meats and Iish. Typical pickling
agents included brine (high in salt) and vinegar
Gelatine - Jelly or gelatine was used Ior preserving cooked meat or Iresh Iish. Food may be preserved by
cooking in a material, such as gelatine, that solidiIies to Iorm a gel. Some Ioods naturally Iorm a protein
gel when cooked such as eels
Smoked Food - Wood smoked Iood was a method use to preserve pork or Iish
Drying - Most meats and Iruit can be preserved through the drying process. Drying is also the normal
means oI preservation Ior cereal grains such as wheat, oats, barley and rye.
Candies - Fruits & nuts could be candied in order to prolong their liIe
Honey - Was used a preservative in mead
Principle oI Medieval Food Preservation
The principle oI Iood preservation was to treat Iood in such a way as to saIely stop, or slow down, the
spoilage oI Iood. The preservation methods require the Iood to be sealed aIter treatment.
Medieval Food Preservation
The Medieval Times website provides interesting Iacts, history and inIormation about Medieval times
including Medieval Food Preservation. The Medieval Times Sitemap provides Iull details oI all oI the
inIormation and Iacts about the Iascinating subject oI the lives oI the people who lived during the
historical period oI the Middle Ages. The content oI this article on Medieval liIe and times provides Iree
educational details, Iacts and inIormation Ior reIerence and research Ior schools, colleges and homework
Ior history courses and history coursework.

Early methods oI Iood preservation

The preservation of harvested and prepared food for future consumption is one of
the oldest practical arts, a necessity that developed from the sheer need to survive
in a hostile environment where fresh food was not always available. Techniques for
drying foods date back to ancient times, when fruits and vegetables were dried in
the sun or on an open stove. Without water present, the dehydrated foodstuffs
would not support microorganisms and therefore did not spoil. By 1000 BC, the
Chinese were using salt, spices, and smoking to create a sterile environment for
different food products. Salt also acts as a dehydrating agent and is particularly
useful for fish and meat. Salted meat served explorers and military forces well
because of its stability and portability, and it was a technique that lasted into the
twentieth century.
It was also discovered very early that making cheese could preserve dairy products,
grape juice could be fermented into wine that would last for years at normal
temperatures, and even cabbage could be preserved by converting it to fermented
sauerkraut. North American Indians made pemmican by drying the meat of buffalo
or deer and then mixing it with a large amount of fat. This was effective because
the fat presumably excluded oxygen.
Food preservation changed significantly, however, in the early 1800s, when the
Frenchman Nicolas Appert made "the seasons stand still" by inventing a technique
to preserve foods in glass jars. Appert opened a factory at Massy but also described
his process for anyone to follow. Appert had discovered that unwanted bacteria
were destroyed by placing the jars in boiling water for a specific time period
depending on the food and then sealing the jar under these sterile conditions.
Although Appert preferred glass because he thought it was the best for keeping out
oxygen, others soon followed with metal containers, and the modern canning
industry was born.

The Incas stored their potatoes and other foods at the high altitudes where they
lived in the Andes Mountains. The food froze at these cold temperatures, and
because of the reduced atmospheric pressure, the water dissipated more quickly
than it would have at sea level. Early in the twentieth century this process was
more carefully developed when frozen foods were placed in a vacuum, allowing the
frozen water crystals to sublime directly from the solid to vapor form, where they
could be easily removed. Freeze-dried foods can be stored for a long time and are
easily reconstituted if desired. This process was slow to find any commercial
application until the 1930s, when freeze-dried coffee was first manufactured in
Switzerland. During World War II some troops were supplied with freeze-dried
orange juice, and freeze-dried blood plasma was carried by medics into the front
battle lines. Several hundred food products have been commercially freeze-dried
since 1960.

A chance discovery

If food is simply frozen without removing the solid water crystals, then storage,
quality, and lifetime become an entirely different set of problems. Early polar
explorers frequently found their food supplies in a frozen state, and they
encountered many problems in being able to ingest and digest these foods,
which often had reduced nutritional value. Yet the Eskimos had survived for
centuries in a hostile environment, living off fresh food from the ocean or the
land and preserving this food by drying or freezing and storing it for times of
need.
An astute naturalist employed by the United States government was the first to
take particular notice of how the Eskimos prepared their frozen fish. On duty in
the Arctic Clarence Birdseye watched in fascination as the Arctic ice and the
bitter Arctic wind froze the fresh fish almost instantly. More importantly,
Birdseye found that when these frozen fish were later thawed, cooked, and
eaten, their taste was remarkably similar to the original fresh food.
Recognizing that this "flash" or practically instantaneous freezing had
commercial potential, Birdseye left his government job and formed Birdseye
Seafoods, Inc. in 1924. In 1930 he was awarded a United States patent for a
"Method of Preparing Food Products" (#1,773,079), a system that packed fish,
meat, and vegetables in waxed cartons that were then flash-frozen.
Even as Birdseyes company worked to develop refrigerated display cases for
grocery stores, it continued to experiment with a wide range of prepared foods,
expanding from meat, fish, and vegetables to bread, poultry, and stews.
Hampered by the infancy of the refrigeration industry and the lack of suitable
freezers in both homes and stores, the lack of suitable facilities for transporting
frozen commodities, and the Great Depression of the 1930s, this effort resulted
in "little more than several patents, some technical papers, and stacks of
laboratory notes." (1)
During World War II Birdseye and a number of other companies continued to
produce frozen foods, largely because food rationing and a shortage of canned
goods tempted consumers to try whatever was available. By the end of the war
there were 45 companies in the field, and as price controls were gradually
removed by the Office of Price Administration (OPA) beginning in May 1946,
the number of frozen food producers almost doubled. The variety of products
was truly amazing. In addition to the standard fare there were also more exotic
entrees such as borscht, lobster Newburg, and pigs' knuckles.
"The initial reception was gratifying, but then came the moment of truth.
Dozens of new packers had frozen anything that would freeze without any
scientific experimentation to ascertain proper methods for freezing, without
any regard for quality, without any notion of proper packaging, pricing, product
size, or marketing. The result was a near disaster. As fresh and canned foods
were gradually removed from OPA jurisdiction, the consumers stayed away
from frozen prepared foods in droves." (1) As a result, between 1946 and
1947, the production of frozen foods dropped 87 percent in a single year!

United States agriculture turns to science

As the Great Depression wore on into the 1930s the economic plight of the
American farmer deteriorated because of a surplus of products such as wheat,
cotton, milk, and potatoes. The Farm Chemurgic Council, begun in 1935 by a group
of scientists and industrialists and supported by Henry Ford and Irne Du Pont,
was convinced that "through research, practically unlimited opportunities existed
for the creation of new products from farm commodities." (3) When Congress
passed the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 "as a new charter of freedom for
farmers," one of its provisions was the establishment of regional research
laboratories that would look for new uses of specific crops in different regions of the
country.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was directed to determine
what research in what areas had the most potential to benefit the American farmer.
Within a year, a massive report was prepared, reviewing 10,000 research topics
and covering 1300 institutions involved with chemurgic research. The USDA settled
on four locations: Philadelphia, Peoria, New Orleans, and San Francisco. Acting
quickly, Congress appropriated $4 million for the four almost identical research
buildings at the four sites, and by the end of 1940 the buildings were completed,
equipped, and staffed. The first research centers for farm commodities had begun
operation less than three years after their concept had been proposed.
According to the 1940 Yearbook of Agriculture, their mission was straightforward
enough. "The market for farm products is to be held - and expanded wherever
possible - by aggressive use of . science and technology.. The desired result may
not be attainable, but the game is not to be lost by default, at any rate." As the
regional center for the western United States, the Western Regional Research
Laboratory [now the Western Regional Research Center (WRRC)] was to focus on
fruits and vegetables, wheat, potatoes, and alfalfa. It was built in Albany,
California, adjacent to Berkeley; part of its land was a donation from the University
of California. The planners of the original research centers expected that the initial
list of commodities assigned to each center would expand and change with time,
and they were not disappointed

Frozen Iood research begins at WRRC

After the 1947 debacle in the frozen food industry, it quickly became obvious to the
industry that some of the problems, such as poor color and flavor, inedible pre-
cooked dinners, and even mold growth, could benefit from a more careful scientific
analysis.
For some time, research in frozen foods had been conducted by a number of
groups, including the USDA. The USDA had established a track record of research in
frozen foods dating back to World War I with Mary Penningtons work on
refrigeration and the shipping of perishable commodities. Now, the frozen food
industry, led by Helmut C. Diehl, who was director of the Refrigeration Research
Foundation, approached the USDA with recommendations that it undertake a
thorough investigation of the entire matter. Diehl, who had conducted research on
frozen foods in the 1920s and 1930s for the USDA, had spent time at the WRRC
after it opened. He pledged the full financial support of the industry to this
endeavor.
Diehl was asking for a comprehensive scientific and technological study of all the
practices of the frozen food industry, but there was also considerable interest in the
"maintenance of the high quality of commercially packed frozen foods under the
conditions of temperature and time that they would experience in nationwide
distribution." The project was assigned to Albany, and WRRC Director Michael J.
Copley "seized the opportunity to show-case the Centers ability to perform such a
large and complex undertaking as an instrument of discovery and invention." A
large staff of chemists, food technologists, and engineers was assembled, and
specialized cold-storage rooms were designed and constructed. Capable of storage
temperatures from -30 F to +40 F, these rooms could carefully duplicate the
fluctuating temperatures that were the key focus of the investigation, while novel
refrigeration systems moved cold air over the test foods, year after year, through
many different cycles.
In close consultation with the frozen food industry, the WRRC staff worked from
1948 to 1965 to study frozen fruits, juices, vegetables, poultry, beef, precooked
foods, and bakery products. Most of the frozen food products were supplied by the
industry over a multi-year period, although a pilot plant built at WRRC was used to
study directly what happens during the freezing process. The first of 24 technical
papers describing the WRRC experimental design and results appeared in the
January 1957 issue ofood Technology with the title "The Time-Temperature
Tolerance of Frozen Foods." (4)
There was considerable staff discussion before agreement was reached on this title.
The ideal scenario for the industry would be one in which the newly frozen food
would forever be held in a constant low-temperature environment, generally
considered to be 0 F (or lower) at the time. Much of the problem, however, lay in
what happened to the frozen foods between the time they left the plant and the
time they were purchased by the consumer.
For practical purposes, the question was to determine what variance in the ideal
temperature a product could withstand without affecting its quality. That is, "what
is the tolerance of a frozen food to adverse conditions, measured in terms of time
and temperature combinations?" (5) In typical scientific fashion, this title was
shortened simply to the T-TT studies.
As assistant WRRC director Wallace Van Arsdel explained, the major objective of
the T-TT work was to study the changes in frozen foods as they proceeded through
the distribution system, determine the deviations in the system that would still
allow a satisfactory consumer product, and make recommendations for improving
the distribution system itself. Once these results were available, the WRRC intended
to improve the selection, processing, and packaging of frozen foods so that they
would better withstand adverse conditions in the distribution system. A second goal
was to find suitable tests that could be applied to a frozen product anywhere in the
distribution system to see what changes may have occurred and whether the
products were still commercially acceptable when they reached the retail market. It
was the beginning of a massive and arduous effort of many people over a long
period of time as they attacked a complex problem using basic science and
engineering.

DeIining "Quality"

While it is relatively easy to measure "stability" in quantitative terms, the same is
not true for "quality," which is notoriously vague and elusive. Initially, sensory
panels of people trained in utilizing sight, smell, and taste were used to provide
some measure of "quality." But a new instrumentation technique was just becoming
available to researchers in the early 1950s. As a method of analyzing even the
trace amounts of individual chemical components in a mixture, gas chromatography
(GC) quickly became the method of choice in studying aroma and flavor because it
could detect which compounds were responsible for the sensory effects, and how
much of each component was present. Now that the compounds responsible for off-
flavor and rancidity could be measured, the WRRC staff developed many new uses
for GC in flavor and food chemistry. They were particularly successful in sampling
the space above a frozen food and injecting this directly into the GC, a technique
now known as "static headspace sampling" that is still a standard in the food
industry.
For example, rancidity in meats derives from the breakdown of fats in an oxidation
process that immediately leads through a series of complicated chemical reactions
to aldehydes and hydroxy compounds that are responsible for the rancid flavor and
odor. These reactions can also occur in frozen meat and fish when rancidity
accelerators are present. One method of quality measurement is to use GC analysis
to look for these known components of rancidity and determine their amounts. In
the early 1960s, WRRC scientists were among the first to combine GC with another
analytical technique, mass spectrometry. The sensitive and rapid combined gas
chromatography-mass spectrometry procedure simplified the study of food flavor
and aroma compounds and improved the objective determination of food quality.
Among the key aroma components first identified at WRRC are those of orange,
apple, rice, tortilla chips, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, popcorn, plums, and pineapple.
Even though these new techniques helped quantify "quality," sensory panels were
always an important part of the T-TT work. They were often used to verify the
conclusions reached through chemical tests such as chlorophyll degradation or loss
of ascorbic acid, especially in determining that point in storage where there was a
"just notable difference" and correlating that to the appropriate chemical measu
Chemical reactions at low temperatures
In the early stages of the T-TT research it became apparent that many of the
changes accompanying food deterioration on prolonged storage, even at extremely
low temperatures, were caused by the continued action of the foods own enzymes.
Even before the T-TT work began, it was known that better frozen food quality
results from blanching, the process in which vegetables are briefly heated in hot
water or steam. The intent is to deactivate the enzyme peroxidase, thought to be
the culprit in causing the post-freezing degradation. T-TT studies led to a rapid,
reliable, and convenient assay for peroxidase, and subsequently established the
appropriate blanching parameters for individual fruits and vegetables.As the range
of foods tested in the T-TT work expanded, it became apparent that the elimination
of peroxidase activity was neither necessary nor desirable during the blanching of
some foods. In some cases, the index of blanching became the inactivation of
catalase, a process that was gentler than that required for peroxidase inactivation.
In other cases, yet another enzyme, lipoxygenase, was found to be the major
promoter of reduced quality, and blanching times were considerably shorter for this
enzyme. In other words, what was once thought to be a single and simple
blanching process was now expanded to included detailed procedures for different
foods, all of which contributed to a higher food quality for the consumer.

Chlorophyll as a benchmark Ior vegetable quality

Without blanching, the enzymes catalase and peroxidase will accelerate changes in
texture, color, and flavor even after the food has been frozen. There are several
ways to follow changes in vegetables after processing, including measuring ascorbic
acid or, in the case of cauliflower, the brown pigments soluble in a water-acetone
mixture. Many T-TT studies, however, followed the fate of chlorophyll.
The chlorophyll content of a living plant is readily measured. The blanching
procedure ends the respiration process, and the conversion of chlorophyll to
pheophytin begins. At the same time, the color slowly changes from a bright green
to a dull olive brown. With proper handling and processing, it can be assumed that
at the beginning, when the food is freshly frozen, there is no pheophytin present,
and any changes in the ratio of chlorophyll to pheophytin are taking place in the
post-freezing chain of events from processor to consumer. This proved to be a
sensitive technique for the WRRC to follow what was happening as time and
temperature fluctuated. It was actually possible to construct empirical equations
that would predict the chlorophyll conversion based on the temperature history of a
frozen vegetable.
The T-TT investigators found that "the first perceptible loss of initial quality of many
frozen vegetables occurs in less than one years storage at 0 F." Further, "a few
degrees difference in temperature for long-term storage can cause a great
difference in quality retention. At the same time, short exposures above 0 F are no
more damaging than long exposures at lower temperatures." (5) These results
testify to the complexity of the frozen-food stability problem. For example, on
storage at 0 F, the first noticeable flavor difference occurred first for peas (265
days), followed by spinach (271 days), green beans (285 days), and cauliflower
(355 days).
Major scientiIic results Irom the T-TT program

Although frozen-food research had begun long before the initiation of the T-TT
program, it had been carried out by a variety of groups both in industry and
academe. The useful information obtained prior to 1948 was fragmented with many
unanswered questions. The WRRC program was the first large-scale systematic
investigation of the problems of delivering a quality product from the farm to the
consumer, in a fashion that would keep the consumer interested in making future
purchases. Among the innovative results emanating from the WRRC work were:
- Generating practical working models for a large variety of frozen foods.
- Predicting the stability and quality of frozen food over time by using mathematical
equations.
- Discovering that 0F is the critical temperature to maintain stability in most
frozen foods, a result that is still followed today in most household freezers.
- Recommending to the transportation industry the maximum time different food
types could be warmed above 0F without significant deterioration.
- Identifying specific aroma compounds for a wide variety of foods.
- Establishing analytical methods for measuring "quality."
- Establishing the stability periods for frozen foods, leading to a star marking
system often used to help the consumer know how long a particular food can
remain in cold storage before it begins to deteriorate.
- Inventing "dehydrofreezing," wherein certain foods, such as potatoes, are
partially dehydrated before freezing, resulting in financial savings because of
reduced volume and weight.
- Improving the blanching process for the preparation of frozen vegetables,
including the Individual Quick Blanching (IQB) and the Vibrating IQB cooler.
- Discovering that for some foods, notably orange juice and onions, the addition
rather than the removal of an enzyme was important for quality and stability.
- Eliminating salmonella contamination in fresh and frozen liquid egg products.

The T-TT work investigated a complex process, and produced complex results. As it
progressed, the frozen food industry quickly accepted its results and adopted its
recommendations. Any scientific investigation also inevitably generates as many
new questions as it answers. In a 1968 book, Van Arsdel commented, "in the
following chapters (5) the reader will find puzzles and unanswered questions; every
such question should be looked upon as an opportunity, a door which only needs to
be unlocked." Thus the T-TT work led to another level of research still conducted
today by a variety of groups in many different locations.
"One generalization apparent from work on this project and from published reports
by others is that the quality and acceptability of frozen foods are eroded away by
every experience, whether it be holding for a long time at even a "good"
temperature or experience of a higher temperature for even a short time, and that
the erosion is progressive and irreparable. Frozen foods have a memory for adverse
experiences." (4)

Societal impact oI the T-TT program

The collapse of the frozen food industry that precipitated the T-TT program at
WRRC occurred when the United States was on the verge of a post-war boom, and
the American industrial complex could turn from war-related activities to peacetime
consumer goods. The work at WRRC had a large impact on the frozen food industry
in terms of setting the standards for food preparation and storage and restoring
consumer confidence. But it would not have been as successful except for the
concurrent development in related industries.

The refrigeration industry grew enormously, and separate "zero-degree" freezing
units became increasingly available for household use. New refrigerant gases (the
freons) were found to have ideal properties for both freezers and refrigerators. Prior
to the war, railroad cars using an ice-salt mixture could maintain a temperature
only down to 15 F, but in the post war period new "reefer" cars using mechanical
refrigeration could guarantee the zero-degree requirement for frozen food storage.
Finally, new moisture-resistant and flexible plastic and metal foils were generated
by the packaging industry in response to the need of the increased production of
frozen foods. It was the dovetailing of research and development in all of these
areas that led to the continued growth of the frozen food industry and the
acceptance by the public of this commodity as a contributor to a better quality of
life.
In 1950, when the T-TT studies were just underway, the frozen food industry had
$500 million in sales. That number grew to $6.245 billion in 1966 and reached $68
billion in 1999. As the twentieth century ended, there were 40 million freezers and
120 million refrigerators in American homes. Over 2 million people were employed
by 550 major frozen food producers, and there was a warehouse capacity of 3
billion cubic feet, with more than eight billion pounds of frozen foods in storage.
One-quarter of all U.S. food exports are frozen foods, with a value of some $5
billion. The WRRC played a major part in the mobilization of scientific resources
dedicated to the reproducible and safe production of high-quality frozen foods for
human consumption. The knowledge developed at WRRC during studies of frozen
food stability and quality has since been applied to other processing and
preservation techniques, to the development of value-added food products, and to
food safety improvements by WRRC scientists and their colleagues at other
governmental, academic, and industrial research and development facilities.
Landmark designation
The American Chemical Society designated the Time-Temperature Tolerance
research at the Western Regional Research Center as a National Historic Chemical
Landmark on December 11, 2002. The plaque commemorating the event reads:
After World War II, the staff of the Western Regional Research Center conducted
complex and comprehensive investigations of frozen foods, focusing on how time
and temperature affected their stability and quality. The discovery of the chemical
changes occurring as frozen food went from the farm to the dinner table provided
much of the scientific basis needed for the future success of the fledgling frozen
food industry. The freezing protocols, analytical techniques, and food handling and
storage recommendations from the Western Regional Research Center studies led
to the superior flavor, texture, and appearance of todays frozen food.