The History of Canned Food

Food preservation has long been one of humanity’s oldest challenges. Salting, smoking, and sun-drying were techniques refined over thousands of years, yet all required sacrificing some degree of flavor and nutrition. Canned food fundamentally broke through those limitations. The combination of two simple principles — sealing and heating — rewrote the history of food storage, and its starting point lay in the practical demands of the battlefield.

Napoleon and the Birth of Canning

In the late 18th century, Napoleon Bonaparte, who had plunged all of Europe into the turmoil of war, faced one pressing problem: how to supply fresh food to the many soldiers fighting on distant fronts far from the French homeland.^[1] A method was needed to preserve food for extended periods without relying on traditional preservatives like salt or sugar.

In 1795, the French government offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could develop “a method of food preservation that is nutritious, tasty, and convenient to carry.”^[2] This was a staggering sum at the time, often described as “a king’s ransom.”

Nicolas Appert’s Invention

Nicolas Appert (1749–1841), a confectioner from a small village east of Paris, took up that challenge.^[3] From around 1795, Appert devoted himself to researching food preservation, and after a decade of experiments, he developed an innovative method.

Appert’s approach was surprisingly straightforward: place food in a glass jar, seal it with a cork and paraffin wax, then submerge it in boiling water.^[4] The heat killed the microorganisms inside the food, while the sealed container blocked outside air, preventing spoilage. Remarkably, Appert himself did not fully understand why his method worked — it would be decades more before Louis Pasteur would prove germ theory.^[5] He had the result in hand before he had the explanation.

In 1804, Appert established the world’s first food bottling factory, La Maison Appert, in Massy near Paris.^[6] He successfully preserved a wide range of foods, including soups, vegetables, fruits, dairy products, jellies, jams, and syrups.

In 1810, Appert’s bottling technique passed official evaluation, and he was awarded the promised 12,000 francs.^[7] There was one condition, however: he had to make his method public. That same year, Appert published a book titled L’Art de conserver les substances animales et végétales (The Art of Preserving Animal and Vegetable Substances), which was printed in 6,000 copies.^[8] It was the first book ever written on modern food preservation methods.

In honor of Appert’s contribution, the canning process is sometimes referred to as “appertization.”^[9]

From Glass Jars to Tin Cans

Appert’s glass jars were effective, but heavy and fragile. In 1810, British merchant Peter Durand made a significant improvement by patenting the use of tin-coated iron containers sealed with solder in place of glass.^[10] This marked the beginning of the “tin can” as we know it today.

Early tin cans were made from thick iron sheets, and their lids were soldered by hand.^[11] A single skilled craftsman could produce no more than 60 cans a day. Through the 1810s and 1820s, cans produced in Britain were intended primarily for the navy and explorers.^[12] The shift from glass to metal was more than a change of material. Glass had to be handled carefully to avoid breakage, but metal cans could withstand rough treatment on the battlefield or aboard expedition ships. The container itself had become tougher.

The Can Opener — A 48-Year Gap

Strikingly, it took a full 48 years from the invention of the tin can in 1810 until a dedicated can opener was developed.^[13] How did people open cans in the meantime?

Early can manufacturers attached instructions to their products reading “open with a knife and hammer” or “open with a chisel and hammer.”^[14] Some cans had the words “chisel and hammer” printed directly on them. Soldiers sometimes used their bayonets.^[15]

This inconvenience persisted for so long because the primary consumers of early canned goods were armies and explorers, who already carried knives, axes, and other tools. Canned food had not yet become common in ordinary households.^[16] The need for a dedicated tool only became urgent once canned food began spreading into the civilian market.

Ezra Warner and the First Can Opener

On January 5, 1858, Ezra J. Warner of Waterbury, Connecticut, invented the first patented American can opener.^[17] Warner’s design featured a sharp, sickle-shaped blade attached to a lever with a protective guard. Called the “bayonet and sickle” design, the bayonet portion would punch a hole in the lid, while the sickle blade sawed around the rim to cut it open.^[18]

Warner’s can opener looked dangerous by modern standards, but it was revolutionary for its time. It achieved widespread success during the American Civil War (1861–1865) when the Union Army adopted it for opening military ration cans.^[19]

The Rotary Can Opener and Modernization

The rotary wheel can opener familiar in modern households appeared relatively early, in the 1870s.^[20] In 1870, William Lyman patented a can opener with a rotating cutting wheel, which was far safer and easier to use than its predecessors.^[21]

Lyman’s rotary design was fundamentally different from the blade-based approach: it required less force and cut the lid cleanly and consistently. Even unskilled users could achieve reliable results, which helped canned food firmly establish itself as a household staple.

By the 20th century, electric can openers had arrived, and in the 1980s, the “safety can opener” was developed to leave a smooth edge and reduce injuries from sharp lids.^[22]

The Pull-Tab Revolution

In 1959, Ermal “Ernie” C. Fraze, an inventor from Dayton, Ohio, grew frustrated at a picnic when he could not open a beer can — an experience that inspired him to develop the pull-tab design.^[23] In 1963, his invention was commercialized and pull-tabs began appearing on beer and soft drink cans.

Early pull-tabs completely removed a portion of the lid, which led to environmental pollution from discarded tabs and occasional incidents of people accidentally swallowing them.^[24] To address this, in 1976, Daniel F. Cudzik, an engineer at Reynolds Metals Company, patented the “Stay-On-Tab.”^[25] This design pushes a section of the lid inward rather than detaching it entirely, and it is the pull-tab mechanism we use today.

Japan’s Canned Coffee Revolution

Another landmark application of canning technology emerged in Japan in 1969: the world’s first canned coffee.^[26]

Ueshima Tadao (上島忠雄, 1910–1993), founder of UCC Ueshima Coffee, set out to create “a beverage that could be enjoyed simply, anywhere, anytime.”^[27] In 1969, UCC launched the world’s first canned coffee. The can’s color scheme — a combination of brown, white, and red — has remained unchanged from the company’s founding to the present day. Brown represents roasted coffee, white represents the coffee plant’s flowers, and red represents ripe coffee cherries.^[28]

There were non-technological reasons why canned coffee succeeded first in Japan. The country’s dense urban structure, its commuter culture, and its already extensive network of vending machines all supported the rapid spread of canned coffee. The experience of pulling a warm can of coffee from a vending machine was a combination difficult to replicate elsewhere.^[29] For canning technology to expand into the beverage market, it required both consumers willing to drink from a can and the infrastructure to distribute it — and Japan was the first country to meet both conditions simultaneously.

From the Battlefield to the Table — and Beyond

Appert had the result in hand before he had the explanation, and the tin can existed for 48 years without a proper way to open it. The recurring pattern in the history of canned food is that technology outpaced understanding, and necessity dragged the right tools into existence only after the fact. The barrier that salt, smoke, and sun could never breach was brought down by a simple combination of sealing and heating — yet reaching that simplicity required ten years of experimentation and a 12,000-franc prize. What canned food ultimately proved was not just the possibility of preserving food. It was the fact that, in the face of urgent need, imperfect action can change the world before perfect theory ever arrives.