Something to do with SALT. i need an answer.

Question

what's in the principle of using salt for preservation..?

or why is it used in preservation.. example in food?

Answer 1

http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-salt-and-...

Answer 2

salt kills all microbial life forms

Answer 3

Osmolarity!

Osmosis is the movement of water from low concentrations of solute to high concentrations of solute.

A bacterial cell needs to maintain a certain amount of water, too much, the cell will lyse (swell up and pop!), or too little and the cell will shrivel up like a raisin.

Salting foods creates a hypertonic (high concentration of solute) environment compared to the bacterial cell. This causes water to move out of the cell (in an attempt to dilute the high solute concentration) so the cell will essenciall shrink and die.

Answer 4

its coz of osmosis(when 2 solutions of different concentrations are separated by a semipermeable membrane,the movement of water or solvent takes place from   lower concentration of solutes  to the region of higher concentration till the state of equilibrium is reached)...salt increases the osmotic pressure of the pickles(or any other substances which are preserved thru salt)...and osmotic pressure is directly proportional to concentration of dissolved solutes in a solution...or in other words salt makes the preparation hypertonic(higher concentration of solutes or..a solution having such a concentration that it gains water or solvent by osmosis across a semi permeable membrane from other specified solution)...here the other specified solution is the bacterial fluid...so as the salt makes the preparation hypertonic the bacterial fluid is pulled outside the bacteria killing it...thats hw salt preserves the preparations.....

Answer 5

It lasts food longer, in the olden days when they had meat in packages and stuff they would cover it with salt when they started to deliver so it wouldn't become spoiled. It basically protects it, like in the REALLY REALLY olden days (BC) sometimes when people conquered a land they would cover it in salt so that nothing would ever grow on it again.

Answer 6

This is because salt is a very good desiccant, it absorbs moisture and dehydrate the food. Microoriganisms and bacteria often need moisture to multiply and grow, if you can keep the food dry, it can prevent bacterial infection in food.

The principle is similar to that of honey. Honey never turns stale, this is because honey is so concentrated, it contains only little amount of water, making it a very unsuitable breeding ground for bacteria, that's why it stays for years.

:)))))))))

Answer 7

It basically dehydrates what its used on.

This deactivates the enzymes that spoil food preserving it for longer periods of time.