![]() ![]() So while inventors were working on more efficient ways to preserve and consume food from a can, a hungry public was plagued by another problem: food adulteration. Later cans were produced from lighter materials but were still difficult to open that is, until 1925 when the can opener was invented. Soldiers issued canned food as rations would have to shoot the can or stab it with a bayonet to get at the food inside! Just how difficult? Well, some cans came with instructions on how to break them open with a hammer and chisel. He made his cans from wrought iron, however, which was exceedingly heavy and difficult to open. In the early nineteenth century, an Englishman named Bryan Donkin came up with the sealed metal can. Unfortunately, however, the glass jars didn’t seal well, meaning that air and bacteria could contaminate the food. In the late eighteenth century, a Frenchman named Francois Appert proposed storing food in glass jars.Īppert’s idea was a huge breakthrough at the time simply because the alternatives were poor. How to preserve food to last through a winter, say, was once a big challenge for families. Yet people didn’t always have such easy access to healthy, non-perishable foods. Nearly every modern Western kitchen has a cupboard stacked high with a colorful array of cans, filled with foods from olives to peaches to peas. ![]()
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