Material that has characteristics of soil

[Borislava]

Hello :)

I am a student searching for a way to preserve raw food without a fridge for an assignment. Thinking about the method in which you wrap your food and bury it to keep it fresh, I wondered if there is some material that resembles the characteristics of soil. Have you came across something like this and do you think it can work for keeping food fresh?

My original task is to find:

• a way to safely preserve perishable food
• that keeps the nutritional characteristic of the food itself unaltered
• that is more energy saving than the best refrigerator available on the market
• not involving:
- drying
- vacuuming
- putting under salt, alcohol, ethyl, oil
- smoking
- marinating
- chemicals
- preservatives

Thanks

 

[pa5tabear]

Why bury it?

The key things you need to worry about are:

-Temperature: The higher it is, the faster the spontaneous reactions will occur that lead to degradation.
-Air flow across the "system" boundaries: More air means more oxygen, which is necessary to support most pathogen growth. Air flow can also carry pathogens and "infect" your food item.
-Amount of air within the system: Keeping oxygen out of the system will minimize pathogen growth.
-"pathogen" exposure: Wrapping up your food will help prevent contamination.

The ideal would be to start with completely clean food (no pathogens), seal it completely so that there is no air, and no air flow across the system boundaries, and keep it at a low temperature.

You have to find a loop-hole to accomplish these things without breaking the rules.

Off the top of my head, my suggestion would be to boil your food (ensure that there are no pathogens), then submerge it in peanut butter.

Stuff doesn't grow in peanut butter, and there would be very minimal oxygen exposure.