Canning

Abstract

New developments in any activity are best seen in the context of what went before; it is also useful to find the reasons leading to innovation since these may also point the way to future developments. The present state of canning technology may be looked at in this way. Why do we eat canned foods? There must be important reasons, since the average person in the United Kingdom (man, woman, child) consumes the contents of over 100 cans each year. The simplest of course is that our increasingly urbanised population has no option but to eat preserved foods to keep alive and canning is one of the most efficient methods of food preservation. But it is obviously not merely the provision of nutritious, safe preserved foods that has caused the tremendous growth in the canning industry — although without these features it could not have happened. The main reasons lie in the variety and convenience provided by canned foods. Not only has the industry made our own fruits and vegetables available evenly throughout the year, without reference to their season, but foods harvested in distant lands are made equally accessible. Apart from the variety added to the diet in this way, the convenience of having food prepared ready to eat becomes steadily more important as housewives have, or are prepared to spend, less time in the kitchen and while caterers find labour hard to get. Increasingly we look to the food manufacturer to invest the time and labour of preparing and cooking and to employ skilled chefs for blending ingredients so that our twin objectives of variety and convenience are met by the foods we buy, soups, patés and ready meals, for example. In addition, canned foods are offered at a price which is competitive with fresh and other preserved foods. If we look more closely at what has been said it is evident that quality, convenience and price should be the spurs to developing technology. They should also be the yardsticks against which we measure its success.

Citation

Herbert, D.A. (1971), "Canning", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 71 No. 3, pp. 18-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb058515