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A confectioner
gets scientific
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On 26 October 1795
Napoleon I offers a
prize of 12,000 gold francs for the discovery of a process that will
make foods keep. The army and navy should be able to take stores with
them at all times. The prize "for the art of keeping all animal and
vegetable substances completely fresh" - as it says in the certificate
- is paid out in 1810. The winner is the Parisian confectioner
FranÇois Nicolas Appert. Appert's method of sterilisation is
based on heating supplies in glass gars. The air escapes through a
seal. The foods are thus protected by a vacuum. As soon as 1812 the
proto-preserves from his production can be found on all the dining
tables of the well-to-do in France.
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Hollow times
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| The Englishman Peter
Durand adopts
Appert's method of sterilisation, but uses containers made of tin - to
be more exact, tea tins. In 1810 he has this idea patented. In 1818
Durand introduces the tin can to the USA. It will take more than 40
years before the first can can be opened with a can-opener - the
can-opener is not invented until 1860. |
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