Nicolas APPERT created a revolutionary process in food industry, duplicated in pharmaceutical, textile and many other industries.
Before the advent of canned foods, over the years mankind learnt to store food during the different seasons, using different methods:
60 years before Louis PASTEUR and the pasteurisation, considering many specifications (taste changing, high price, etc.), Nicolas APPERT created a process able to preserve the food in 1795, . (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Appert)
The sterilization process use heating hermetic containers (the packaging), with a partial vacuum. He transmited his process to Napoléon’s Navy.
The British DONKIN used the same method with metallic box as a container.
Mr CHEVALIER-APPERT 1852 filed a patent for retort manometer.
In 1865, Louis PASTEUR invented firstly the pasteurisation of wine, this process is used in food preservation, which are heated at a defined temperature (less than 100°C) and time, then quickly cooled. They must be refrigerated at a low temperature between 3° and 4°C.
Advent of metal can seaming at the end of the 19th century:
At the beginning of the 20th century, various regulatory firms appeared and set down the standards of how thermal processes are carried out and monitor the food industry to ensure safety around the World.
BIGELOW & BALL established new graphic and mathematical methods by setting sterilization scales using calculus’ laws.
In the 70’s, birth of retortable flexible pouches in the USA.
At the end of the 80’s: evolution of flexible and semi rigid packaging: aluminium foils, paperboard laminates, plastics, etc.