How does salt preserve food?

Answer 1

Salt inhibits bacterial growth. It provides for a hypertonic environment in which most bacterial cells plasmolyze, or lose water and shrink away from their cell walls. (A hypertonic environment is one where there is more salt concentration outside the cell than there is inside).

Basically any cell will die with too much exposure to salt. Bacteria is no exception as people found out before the use of refrigeration.

Answer 2

Salt is considered to be an antibacterial. That is why it is good at preserving products as well as food stuffs. Why is this so? Well, anything that is called antibacterial is called so because it inhibits the growth of bacteria. These bacteria feed off your product and cause it to spoil. Bacteria need a wet environment to grow in. Salt prevents the watery environment the bacteria need to thrive. This is because salt is very good at dehydrating and absorbing the water from anything it comes into contact with. Upon contact with a bacterial presence, salt will start to absorb water from through the cell walls and effectively kill the living organism.

this is the correct answer

Nikita

Answer 3

I believe that the high salt content used to preserve foods prohibits growth of bacteria and other organisms that would otherwise cause the food to spoil.

Answer 4

Salt preserves meat because it creates osmotic pressure as it is absorbed. This prevents the things that spoil meat from surviving. This make the meat last longer.

Answer 5

Salt can remove water from foods so that microorganisms cannot grow.

Answer 6

it sucks up some of the atoms that makes it possible to stay for long periods of time at a time. therefore it is easier to make food with salt therefore not spoiling it.