Question

Which of the following statements is true?

(a) Multi-target preservation helps to target many factors such as pH, temperature etc and hence helps fight all types of microbes

(b) It is desired to reduce the antagonist effects

(c) Sometimes hurdle technology has antagonist effects

(d) All of the mentioned

I have been asked this question in quiz.

This key question is from Food Processing Techniques-2 in portion Food Processing Techniques, Fluid Mechanics and Rheology of Foods of Food Engineering

Answer 1

Right answer is (d) All of the mentioned

Easy explanation: Multi-target preservation helps to target many factors such as pH, temperature etc and hence helps fight all types of microbes. Sometimes, instead of having a positive effect, hurdle technology has antagonist effects. This means that the combination of techniques used for food preservation don’t kill the microbes already present and just inhibit the growth. It could also mean, the mixture concentration required to produce the desired effect is more than that of the individual concentrations.