Since his father was an innkeeper, he gained experience at an early age in preserving food with primitive techniques such as smoking, drying, and brining. (1749-1841)
French industrialist. He pioneered the establishment of the canned food industry by finding a method of heating in an airless environment in order to keep the food intact for a long time.
He was born on 17 November 1749 in Châlonssur-Marne. Since his father was an innkeeper, he gained experience at an early age in preserving food with primitive techniques such as smoking, drying, and bringing. When he reached adulthood, he first opened a pub in the same city with his two brothers. A few years later he worked as a cook for the duke of Ztveibrücken, then as a confectioner in Paris.
At that time, France was following an expansion policy initiated by the Directory Government in 1795 and intensified by Napoleon Bonaparte, especially during the years of the Consulate and the First Empire. The expeditions to distant countries such as Egypt and the wars that lasted for years brought up the problem of feeding the army along with many other problems. In order to solve the problem of fresh food, which threatens the health of soldiers, especially sailors, the French Government decided to give a reward to those who find a way to store meat and vegetables for a long time without losing their nutritional qualities. Appert, who has been doing some research on this subject since 1795, achieved his goal after fourteen years of work, and in 1810 he announced his method and won the grand prize of 12,000 francs. In 1812, with this money, he set up a cannery in Massy, Essonne. However, as he had invested all his earnings in the research of new techniques, he was in shambles when he died in Massy on June 1, 1841.
Appert's method was based on heating foods in airtight (hermetic) containers in boiling water using the bain-marie method. While applying this method, which Appert describes in his book Le Livre de Tous Les Menages ou l'Art de Conserver Pendant Plusieurs Annees les Substances Animales et Vegetales (“Housekeeping or the Art of Preserving Animal and Herbal Substances for Many Years”), a pre-boiled glass jar or He also used bottles. He closed the mouths of the containers with a screw cap to prevent air, and also covered the outside with melted wax and secured it with wires. Performing the boiling process in an autoclave, Appert knew that the spoilage of nutrients comes from boiling the containers at temperatures above 100°C. However, since microbiology was not developed in those years, he could not have known that some microorganisms caused the deterioration in foods and that boiling prevented spoilage by destroying these microorganisms. Therefore, the role of heat in this method could only be explained after Pasteur's identification of microorganisms.
Meat, vegetables, fish, and milk were stored in glass jars in the factory, where fifty workers were employed, and kept their freshness for three months. Appert also invented a method of preserving broths in tablets, straining fermented beverages from gelatin, and heating wine. This sterilization (germ-killing) technique of Appert was developed in 1814 by a British company that used more durable tin cans instead of glass containers. However, the fact that canning became a real industry started in 1838 with Liebig, who thought to preserve the essence of food by removing the water. Now only the useful substances of the foods could be offered to the consumer in very small volumes. In 1856, a big step was taken in nutrition when Borden produced the first canned milk powder by separating the water from the milk and adding sugar to it.