Canned foods made their debut on store shelves in the 19th century, and they’ve only become more common ever since. From your local deli to supermarkets, you can find pretty much anything—from tuna to pineapple—in canned form. But how did we get here? The history of canned food is more intricate than you’d think, and includes new inventions and changes in method and design that bring us to the canned goods we eat today.
Canned food has its origins in the Napoleonic wars, where the French government recognized that finding a way to preserve food for their soldiers would be incredibly useful in the field. Rudimentary processes were put into place before the end of the war.
As the practice took off in the coming century, the canning process became a major innovation in the industrializing world. Food could be preserved for years, by preventing bacteria from proliferating, increasing food safety and availability.