- In most cases food may contaminated with harmful microbes that can cause food
poisoning. Cooking exposes the food to high temperature thus destroys these microbes.
- To change or improve the taste of the food e.g. flour being used to make cake. A cake
tastes far more delicious than raw flour.
- To change or enhance the appearance of the food e.g. using rice to make fried rice.
- To change the texture (the way something feels) of food e.g. using cornmeal to make
pastelles.
- To make food safer to consume (eat). For instance, eating raw eggs can cause Salmonella poisoning whose symptoms include vomiting and diarrhea, nausea and general ill health.
- To make foods more digestible e.g cooking meat makes it easier for the body to use it
and get all the nutrients from it.
- To increase the shelf life of the food e.g. making jam from guava. Adding sugar and
heating the guava to make jam will make a product that has a longer shelf life than fresh
guavas.
Titany answered the question on November 5, 2021 at 06:21