THE life of our tinned fish starts, oddly enough, with glass. At the end of the eighteenth century the industrial revolution led to a sharp rise in the population of the industrialised nations; and more people called for more food. Fridges hadn’t been invented yet and transportation of fresh produce was slow. Preserving methods such as drying, smoking, pickling, curing and conserving in fat or sugar offered little relief and were too expensive on a large scale. Cheaply and safely preserved food was supposed to be the solution for the growing need for food. Even Napoleon Bonaparte faced the troubles of perishable foods, which threatened his ambitions. Hungry soldiers are hardly the ideal force to help you win battles, and in 1795 the French government offered a money prize to whoever could make preserved, nutritious food for a soldier’s ration.
AT the time, French confectioner Nicolas Appert was experimenting with food. Appert had years of experience in the techniques of making syrups and confectionery, and he began heating jars of food in water up to 100°C/200°F, then cooling them down. Once he had perfected the technique, he achieved the desired outcome: he was able to successfully preserve meat, vegetables and fruit by the technique now known as sterilisation. Although preserving fruit by heating it is a technique that had been around long before Appert, he was the first to research the effects of airtight seals and applying high temperatures to food. Appert eventually supplied the navy, which intended to use his preserved fruit to prevent their crew from contracting scurvy. When his efforts proved successful, the navy informed the French government who awarded Appert the prize money in 1810. Appert’s jars enabled the troops to charge into battle well fed, and his conserving method survived Napoleon Bonaparte. The confectioner could easily be seen as a food scientist avant la lettre and the founder of convenience food. Louis Pasteur would later improve on Appert’s technique, turning down the heat by about thirty degrees. Pasteurisation killed enough harmful bacteria and retained more flavour.
THE French government insisted Nicolas Appert should publish his research. L’Art de conserver, pendant plusieurs années, toutes les substances animals et végétables is probably one of the first books on preserving food that found its way into many households around the world. In Britain, the book found its way to Pierre Durand, a Frenchman who anglicised his name to Peter Durand. He held a patent for conserving food in glass and tin cans. Appert nudged Durand in the right direction, but Durand didn’t pursue the business further and sold his patent cheaply to Donkin, Hall and Gamble. Bryan Donkin recognised the potential of conserving food in tin cans. Tins were lighter than glass, didn’t break and were easier to manufacture. Again the navy, this time the Britsh navy, served as the testing ground. The rest is history: the British tin came, saw and conquered. The French have one more addition to the history of tinned food. Grimod de la Reynière, a friend of Nicolas Appert, wrote about the sardines of Nantes conserved in butter, oil and vinegar, before Donkin went full steam ahead with his tins. The efforts of Nicolas Appert and later Louis Pasteur form the basis of the food industry as we now know it. Even now the availability of affordable conserved food means not having to go hungry for millions of people around the world.