Canning of food

Canning of food

During the Middle Ages, the only method of preserving food for sailors who were serVing in the navy, was salting
However, salting was effective only for preserving meat. There was no way to preserve vegetables without destroying their goodness.
As a result, sailors at sea would go for months eating only salted meat. This meant that they were not getting the vitamins that they needed to stay healthy.
Consequently, sailors began to fall ill with a disease called scurvy, which is caused by the deficiency of vitamin C.
So, the navy had to find ways of preserving vegetables and fruits, without destroying the vitamins in them, and canning was the answer.
The invention of canned food was therefore, an important milestone in the field of military inventions.

A canning machine

Who invented canning technology?

In 1795, Napoleon Bonaparte offered a reward to anyone who developed a safe, reliable method of food preservation.
He needed it urgently for his army which was constantly marching from one place to another. It was a French brewer, Nicolas Appet, who discovered that if food was cooked and sealed in glass bottles with hot wax, it would not spoil.

Nicolas Appert

Appert won the prize offered by Napoleon. In 1806, Appert's technique was successfully used by the French Navy on a wide range of foods including meat, vegetables, fruit, and even milk.
In 1810, Peter Durand, an Englishman, replaced the glass bottles with tin cans. Canned foods were greatly favoured by early explorers.
From 1814, onwards, canned foods were sent to distant British colonies. So, an invention that wasbmeant for the military thus became useful for people all over the world.