Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
Canning requires establishing an oxygen-free, partial vacuum inside the hermetic container to prevent can corrosion and oxidative degradation of food.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
The operation of removing air, oxygen, and other occluded gases from the can contents and headspace prior to hermetic sealing is called exhausting.
It can be achieved by:
- Thermal exhausting (heating the open can to expand gases and drive them out).
- Mechanical vacuum exhausting (physically sucking out the air using a vacuum pump).
- Steam-flow injection (displacing air with a jet of steam).
Retorting is the subsequent step of heat sterilization, and seaming is the sealing step.
Step 3: Final Answer:
The process of gas removal is called exhausting, which corresponds to option (A).