Info-Processing Reports
Bonduelle North America Inc. is the largest canned and frozen vegetable processor in Canada. To shine a light on a little-known industry, the company has developed a series of Info-Processing Reports, each covering a different aspect of vegetable processing:
A Short History of Vegetable Processing
From 10,000 to 7000 B.C., ancient civilizations began to develop the resources of the land, cultivating tubers, roots, stalks, grains, fruits and leaves. Vegetables have been a part of our diets ever since. In the hope of providing vegetables for consumption at any moment, researchers over the centuries have developed methods enabling vegetables to be preserved for long periods of time.
Ancient Methods of PreservationFive-thousand years ago, hunters used caves to store their game. Inside, the meat dehydrated and dried, providing an effective means of preservation. As early as 1,000 years ago, the Chinese preserved their products by salting, spicing, fermentation in wine, drying and smoking. In North America, the Amerindians created larders by lining pits with birch bark. The Romans wrapped their fish in snow and ice. Despite their comparative advantages, however, none of these techniques provided maximum preservation.
In the early 20th century, while on an expedition in the Arctic, American businessman and inventor Clarence Birdseye observed that freshly caught fish froze immediately when exposed to the surrounding air. He also noticed that it retained its qualities of freshness when thawed. The Inuit were already using this technique: They would quickly freeze game and fish in blocks of ice, and eat it only several weeks later.
From that moment, Dr. Birdseye deduced that quick freezing – now called flash freezing – is more effective than slow freezing because it preserves a product’s qualities of freshness. He decided to combine the Inuit’s know-how with the latest scientific theories to freeze food with the technology of artificial cold.
In or around 1790, French confectioner Nicolas Appert discovered that heating foods in hermetically sealed containers made them last longer. The inventor fine-tuned his method – which would be christened “appertization,” or canning – before obtaining satisfactory results.
In 1810, Napoleon Bonaparte, then Emperor of France, held a contest to find a food-preservation method that would supply his armies. Nicolas Appert entered his invention and won the prize. In the same year, the Englishman Peter Durand patented his own invention: canisters coated with tin.
In 1812, the Englishmen Bryan Donkin and John Hall purchased Durand’s patent as well as that previously filed by Appert. They combined the two inventions to market the first foods in metal cans. By 1815, the canned food industry had begun expanding throughout the world.
