Malnutrition was rampant among the 18th century French armed forces. As Napoleon prepared for his Russian campaign, he searched for a new and better means of preserving food for his troops and offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could find one. Nicolas Appert, a Parisian candy maker, was awarded the prize in 1809. Although the causes of food spoilage were unknown at the time, Appert was an astute experimenter and observer. For instance, after noting that storing wine in airtight bottles kept it from spoiling, he filled widemouth glass bottles with food, carefully corked them, and heated them in boiling water.
Canned foods are more than a relic dug from the past.
They make up 12 percent of grocery sales in the United States. More than a dozen kinds of beef are canned, including beef burgers and chopped, corned and barbecued beef. According to a recent study cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and NFPA, canned foods provide the same nutritional value as fresh grocery produce and their frozen counterparts when prepared for the table. In fact, in some cases the canned product contained high levels of some vitamins that in fresh produce are destroyed by light or exposure to air. The Canning Process Food-spoiling bacteria, yeasts and molds are naturally present in foods.