Nicolas Appert Shows How to Preserve Food in Sealed Jars

In 1810, the French Ministry of the Interior awarded Nicolas Appert twelve thousand francs on the condition that he publish his method for preserving perishable provisions. A former confectioner and chef from Châlons-en-Champagne, Appert had spent about fifteen years refining a process of heating sealed glass containers. That same year, he published six thousand copies of his treatise on preserving animal and vegetable substances, offering the public the first comprehensive guide to industrial food bottling.

Appert's pursuit is usually dated to 1795, when France's armies at war badly needed better ways to keep food. Some later accounts link his work to a government prize offered that year, but the reward he actually received came in 1810. After working in kitchens and confectioneries in Paris and surviving imprisonment during the Reign of Terror, Appert set out to treat soups, dairy, meats, and vegetables. Drawing upon domestic bottling habits, he sought to scale the practice up into a reliable commercial enterprise, eventually founding a production facility at Massy by 1802.